DA The McDowell Books: Six: Are We There Yet
by 00Tyler00
Summary: With Brac recovering, the McDowells hit the road to spend Thanksgiving with the Cales. But with the thickening plot of destruction for transgenics, not to mention the alarming changes in Brac, was a McDowell family vacation a good idea to begin with?


The McDowell Books

**The McDowell Books**

**By Tyler**

**Disclaimer:** DA and all its characters are the property of James Cameroon. The infant characters of Brac and Nyx were originally created in a fic by Valjean.

**Basic Outline:** Set fourteen years after Freak Nation. Max and Alec have been partners for thirteen years, still living in a largely-functional and swelling Terminal City. The Familiars are no longer at large although they still hunt transgenics with a passion. The world view on transgenics is now officially tolerant, although a great deal of the ex-Manticore creations still choose to reside in TC to live their lives free of discrimination. Max and Alec are largely still the heads of operation at TC, and balance their work lives with the raising of their two children, Brac (13) and Nyx (11).

**Book Six in the McDowell Series**: With Brac's recovery speedily underway, Alec and Max drastically reshuffle their priorities and hit the road to spend Thanksgiving with the Cale family. But with the thickening plot of destruction for transgenics, not to mention the alarming toll Brac's ordeal appears to have taken on him…was a McDowell family vacation ever a good idea to begin with?

Are We There Yet?

"So it seems we owe Sung a two-liter bottle of Jack 'thank-you' Daniels." Max's statement caused Alec's head to shoot up from where he and Brac were locking horns in a game of chess.

"How's that?"

Max grinned as she assessed the strategies of both her boys, sweeping a set of eager brown eyes over the chessboard and smirking broadly at the fact that it would most likely be a stalemate…again.

"Maxie, before you get any ideas, you are _not_ allowed to help him!" Alec ordered in a mock-stern voice as he took in Max's wide smile.

"But you _are_ allowed to help _him_!" Brac stated matter-of-factly as he moved a pawn and swiped up one of Alec's, "Cuz Dad's in major shit right now!"

"Hey, you watch your mouth, squirt! I am _not_ the one gettin' creamed here!" Alec laughed and rubbed his forehead as he wasted no time in snatching up the offending pawn and replacing it with one of his own. "So? What'd Matt do that earns him one o' my precious black 'n white babies?"

"He stormed White's facility just three minutes after we hightailed it outta there, caused the necessary disturbance and scared all the termites outta their nest!" Max sank into the sofa with a great sigh of relief and crossed a leg over the other, "Sent White packing and got our guys out in one piece, so…"

"I guess I gotta make a store-run, huh." Alec forced himself to sound grudging as he secretly felt his insides warm with appreciation to the tried-and-proven Detective Sung.

"Well while you're at it, can you pick up a turkey, Dad?" Nyx looked up from her sketching with a smirk and raise of her eyebrows as she twirled her pencil in her hand.

"For what?" Alec furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, and Brac rolled his eyes.

"Not happenin', Nyxie. It never does and it never will, so give it a rest already!"

"Give what a rest? What's goin' on?" Alec glanced from his children to Max in total bewilderment, "Maxie, would you help me out here? I have a sneaky feelin' I'm being blamed for somethin' and I'd like to know what!"

Max sighed and tugged at a loose thread in her black sweater, "It's Thanksgiving tomorrow, Alec." She raised her eyes to hold her mate's and dropped one eyebrow. That look said it all.

Alec frowned at Brac, "Whaddya mean, 'it never happens'?"

"I dunno – it just…doesn't!" Brac shrugged unapologetically and scruffed up the front of his hair, but his eyes avoided Alec's as they perused the chess board.

"We celebrate every single holiday except Thanksgiving, Dad!" Nyx drove her point home with a raise of her eyebrows and a stab of her pencil, "It's like you guys aren't grateful or somethin'!"

"For what, the lack o' money, the back-stabbin' politicians or the electricity cuts?" Brac muttered and slammed a piece down on the board, "Check!"

Max rolled her eyes as she stood up and stretched, her tight frame arching dangerously and bearing resemblance to a graceful, languid cat. "You left out smart-ass children in that equation!" She yawned and then giggled at the 'ugh' of disgust which left Brac's lips as Alec blatantly eyeballed Max's delicious curves.

"Yeah well this _smart-ass child_ is gonna high-tail it outta here before things get any freakier." Brac pushed away from the coffee table and stood up, waving a hand to ward off Alec as his dad rose to his feet and grabbed Brac's arm.

"I'm fine!"

"Yeah well you're not gonna _stay_ 'fine' if you keep tearin' at those stitches!" Alec batted Brac's hand away and handed the boy his crutch, prompting Brac to groan and roll his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah – 'life's a real bitch', I know. Spare me the drama." Alec smirked ruthlessly as Brac snatched up his crutch and hobbled off, muttering under his breath as he did so.

"Hey, I was just about to hand your ass a checkmate!" Alec called out in protest, but his eyes narrowed in concern as his sensitive ears picked up several token words of Brac's murmured spiel.

"Stupid Conclave bastards...ruining my life from 40 miles off…"

"Hey!" The slam of Alec's hands clapping together caused Max and Nyx to look up from the young girl's scribbling to eye him curiously.

"I got a great idea!" Alec's wide grin and even wider eyes were oozing enthusiasm that managed to capture even Brac's attention and halt the boy in his tracks.

"How about we celebrate Thanksgiving with the Cale gang this year? C'mon, Maxie, whaddya say?"

Max crinkled up her nose and didn't respond for a brief moment. Alec's sudden and flagrantly uncharacteristic burst of holiday spirit had her floored.

"Uh…excuse her while she reattaches her jaw!" Nyx jumped up from her chair and barreled into Alec, wrapping her arms around her dad and gazing up into his eyes adoringly, "I'll answer for the pair of us and say that it is _so_ a great idea!"

Alec ruffled Nyx's hair and pulled her tighter to his chest, eyes focused on Brac who had turned around to stare at his father with open-mouthed, suspicious surprise.

"How about it, buddy – you wanna take another shot at charmin' the pants off o' Xina?" Alec raised his eyebrows and winked, and Brac squinted at him.

"Are you really serious, Dad?"

"Why wouldn't he be?" Max giggled with delight as she threw her arms around Alec's shoulders and nuzzled into the curve of his neck, "I love you, you know that?"

"Why wouldn't he be? I dunno, maybe cuz he rarely _ever_ is?" Brac raised his eyebrows but his green eyes remained in slits, "Maybe cuz Dad finds some reason every single year to avoid Thanksgiving? Maybe cuz the last time we actually went to see the Cale's was over three years ago…"

"Dude if you wanna to stay home and sulk, that's fine by me!" Alec shrugged as he returned Max's cuddles with one of his own, "Just figured we could do with a break, is all." He raised his eyebrows and held Brac's gaze for a brief moment, trying to break down the wall his son was building steadily to keep the world out and his emotions in.

"Brac, quit tryin' to jinx it!" Nyx squealed sourly as she ducked out from Alec's arm and shook a finger at her brother, "We are _going_ to the Cale's and you are finally _gonna_ suck face with Xina and get rid o' your frustration, and that's just all there's frigging to it - you understand me?"

Max gulped and exchanged a shocked expression with Alec before both X5s glanced cautiously at Brac to determine his reaction.

Brac was silent for a moment before he scrunched up his lips and raised an eyebrow at his sister, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Great!" Nyx jumped up and down in excitement before tearing down the hallway to her bedroom, "We're goin' to Uncle Logan's!"

"You know, this is the damn stupidest idea you've had in years!" Mole was still hollering down the phone to Alec a full hour after the McDowell Lexus had exited Terminal City without arousing any fanfare but igniting a blaze of irritation in its wake.

"Yeah, I heard that one, Mole. Got anything else you wanna share?" Max was flying high, her favorite pair of sunglasses on her face and the free wind whipping up her luscious brown locks as Usher's Greatest Hits bellowed in her ears. She hadn't felt this regular in years.

"Yeah – did I mention you're both idiots?" Mole growled, and Max laughed and took a sip of her ice coffee, nudging Alec and holding the cell phone to his ear.

"How you doin, Molie-boy?" Alec spoke into the receiver with a wide smirk at the picture of his furious nomalie compadre on the end of the line.

"How'm I doing? How the fuck d'ya _think_ I'm doin', you crazy lil' brat?"

Alec laughed and chewed at his gum as he listened to Mole cuss him out. After about a minute of lecturing, the X5 burst out laughing once more and waved the phone away from him. "Max, the guy's chewin' my ear off. Gimme a break!"

"Mole, we're on vacation. Bugger off!" Max barked into the receiver with a gleeful grin on her pretty face as she proceeded to terminate the call and switch off her cell phone.

"Did I ever tell ya how much I love ya, Maxie?" Alec shook his head and chuckled at the (utterly foreign) concept of 48 Mole-free hours.

Max laughed, "Just hike up the volume, Golden-boy!"

"Can you not?" Brac called out sourly, and Alec glanced at the rearview mirror to see his son leaning his head against the backseat, sunglasses obscuring his closed eyes and his lips drawn into a tight purse which suggested he was annoyed. The headphones stuck in Brac's ears were blazing loud enough for Max and Alec to pick up the heavy drums of Iron Maiden even over Usher's 'Yeah'.

"My I-Pod's on full blast here!" Brac yelled over the noise of the music and the wind that was pouring in through the open windows of the Lexus. "And I can still hear that RnB crap!"

"And we can still hear your metal trash!" Nyx retorted as she huddled into her sweater and took in the roaring sights that they cruised past with pleasure, "But are we bitching about it? No!"

"Nyxie, you're too young to bitch – you just 'brat'." Brac retorted matter-of-factly as he adjusted his reclining position and slapped at a bug which had flown through the window.

"Uh huh, and you _whine_, which is somethin' you've never managed to outgrow!" Nyx snapped as she poked Brac in the side and he jumped, sitting up and scowling.

"Don't you frigging start with that, Nyx – I mean it!"

"Why – you still ticklish?" Nyx jabbed her brother again and he grabbed her finger, bending it back sharply.

"Grow the fuck up, would you?" Brac growled, and Nyx shrieked out an "Ow!" as he twisted her finger once more before tossing her hand away.

"You little prick!" Nyx's vengeance was swift – a tackling dive which pinned Brac to the seat as she laid into him with a vicious set of right hooks.

"Hey! Cut it out, come on!" Alec called behind him, "Nyxie!" He caught his daughter's eyes in the mirror and glared at her. "That's enough!"

"He started it!" Nyx's whining protest and her pitiful expression made her appear all of five years old.

"What total bull!" Brac shoved her off him and readjusted his sunglasses.

"I don't give a crap who started it!" Max yelled over her shoulder as they passed under a sign for a refreshment stop one mile off, "It's gonna end now, and if I gotta reach back there and finish it myself, it's gonna get ugly!"

"Uglier then it already is with Brac makin' that disgusting pout?" Nyx crossed her arms with a frown which suddenly morphed into a smile as she caught sight of the sign. "Hey Dad, can we stop and get some food?"

Alec smirked at the pleading tone in his baby girl's voice and threw Max a glance. His mate was grinning as she crumpled up her empty ice coffee cup.

"I want Doritos!"

The McDowell's Lexus ground to a halt in the tacky parking lot of the large refreshment complex a mile off the highway which sported everything from a mall to a motel. Nyx was practically hopping up and down with excitement as she took in all of the sights and unbuckled her seatbelt with great enthusiasm.

Max and Alec were delighted with Nyx's giddy state as it had been a while since they'd seen her that worked up over something good. Brac, however, retained his sullen pout and growled in open disapproval as his family piled out of the car and Max pulled open his door.

"Come on, lazy-ass. Out ya get!"

Brac frowned at his mother from behind his shades and pulled out his earphones, "Can't I wait in the…"

"No you can_not_ wait in the car!" Alec, picking up the grumbled request, called from over his shoulder as he locked up the vehicle with the same annoying beam on his face. "C'mon and shift your ass, kid, or I'm throwin' you over my shoulder and hauling you to McDonald's for a Happy Meal!"

"Ugh!" Brac groaned and kicked at the seat in front of him before replacing his earphones and clambering out of the car.

"'Atta boy." Alec grinned, patting his disgruntled son's shoulder and shutting the passenger door behind him as the transgenic family headed into the large restaurant complex just across the lot. Nyx skipped a few paces ahead of her parents, her brief moment of childish pleasure allowing her to ignore the stares that her almost-unbelievably perfect family was receiving from the dozens of average Ordinaries around them.

Alec and Max largely ignored the attention (while keeping cautious eyes peeled for any signs of trouble or familiar faces) as they ambled casually to the entrance of a Steakhouse restaurant and exchanged elated grins. It had been two years since the X5s had 'eaten out' as a couple and five since they had last enjoyed a restaurant meal as a family. One glance at Nyx's broad smile and Brac's indifferent shrug decided Steakhouse was the order of the day.

"Can I take your order?" The curvaceous blonde waitress was beaming at the McDowell's after she led them to the most private table the restaurant had available. Clearly they had already been recognized as the manager himself had personally welcomed the clan and assured them that Steakhouse Chains prided themselves on catering to their customers' every whim.

Nyx's eyes were wide and she was perusing the laminated menu with a relish, evidently basking in the attention their family was receiving – and the wide selection of food. Alec and Max were wearing broad grins at their girl's elation…and their son's dramatic show of displeasure as Brac slouched deeply into his chair, adjusted his sunglasses and hiked up the volume in his I-Pod.

"Can I get the Hungry Horse meal with a large Coke and the Chunky Chocolate pot of ice-cream, please?" Nyx directed her request partly to the waitress and partly to her parents with an award-winning smile which neither party felt inclined to rebuff.

"_One_ Coke, Nyxie, alright?" Alec raised a finger, and Nyx nodded.

"And you and Brac go halves on the ice-cream." Max added as she selected her meal, "Last thing we need is you kids on a sugar high the rest of the trip."

Max and Alec ordered scrumptious portions of their own before the former frowned at her son across the table. "Brac, can you hurry up and order, please?"

Brac's headphones raged System of a Down and he remained in his hunched, stationary state of repose…a state which didn't last long as Max kicked him in his good leg under the table and Brac started.

"_What_?" Brac growled.

"Just hurry up and order!" Max called out over the blare of her son's music, and Brac shook his head.

"Don't want anything."

"You feelin' okay, kid?" Alec glanced up from the menu with a raise of his eyebrows. Brac loved good food almost more then his dad and only ever passed on eating when he was unwell or vehemently pissed-off.

"Just peachy – and don't call me 'kid'." Brac smiled acidly and sniffed, prompting Alec to roll his eyes.

"So what are you havin' then, _Brac_?"

"Nothin'. I already told you; I'm not hungry."

"Yeah well your mother didn't _ask_ if you were hungry." Alec responded flatly, "She asked you to hurry up and order."

The slight upturn of his nose suggested Brac was scowling viciously, and Alec leant forward across the table and lowered his voice to a pitch that only genetically-empowered hearing would pick up.

"And while you're at it, you can sit up straight, kill the audio trash and kill the attitude."

"And take off the shades, to boot!" Nyx added slyly as she sucked the twisty straw in her entrée water.

Brac opened his mouth in what portended to be a vicious retort, but the waitress clearing her throat mercifully nipped the potential war in the bud.

"I would recommend the Chaser Salad meal if you're not too hungry, sir." The blonde's smile faded as Brac took off his sunglasses and looked her up and down in scornful appraisal. "It comes with a side order of fries, garlic bread or roast potatoes." The waitress cast Alec and Max a hesitant glance as Brac briefly looked over the salad meal then blatantly titled his head to get a better view of her ass.

"Looks good enough to eat." He finally responded with a double-meant response that caused the waitress' face to flush. Brac eyed her breasts with a raise of his eyebrow, "I'll have the roast potatoes."

She nodded and scurried away.

As soon as the woman was out of hearing range, Max sent Brac a nasty glare. "What the hell was that?"

Brac shrugged caustically as he pocketed his I-Pod and shifted into a proper position, "Oh don't give me that look – it's not like Dad doesn't do it 24-7!"

"Not like that, I don't." Alec responded turgidly with a frown of disapproval for his son, "If you're gonna 'do it', at least learn to 'do it' in a way that's gonna earn you a number and not a slap."

Brac folded his sunglasses with a deliberate raise of his eyebrows, "Yeah well when I decide I wanna score with a chic like _Mom_, I'll start takin' advice from _you_, Dad."

"You wanna say that again?" Alec's face and tone went hard as steel. The X5 took unwavering offense to all slams at his mate, regardless of the source.

Brac scoffed, "Whatever, I'm goin' to the bathroom." He pushed away from the table and rose to his feet, managing to pull off an obnoxious swagger even with his limp.

Max began to stand up, but Alec grabbed her arm gently and shook his head.

"Alec, something's eatin' him…"

"I know." He said quietly as Max looked down at her mate dubiously, "S'fine, he'll spew it later. Just…sit down and give him a minute or two - c'mon, Maxie." Alec flashed his honey one of his trademark 'you-know-you-wanna' grins, and Max rolled her eyes but resumed his seat compliantly.

Nyx sighed loudly and shook her head with an exaggerated eye-roll, "Men these days, 'ey Mother?"

Max cracked a small smile and then nodded to her left, "Here comes the food!"

They ate in the relative silence that good food and better company exudes, each of the three enjoying the experience while attempting to suppress their separate – and interlinked – concerns.

Nyx read out the corny jokes from her Hungry Horse Riddle paper with zest and tried her very hardest to keep the atmosphere upbeat.

Max laughed dutifully at the cheesy gags and hacked her steak to bits while casting poignant glances at her mate and every now and then in the direction of the toilets.

Alec kept his eyes firmly on his plate, somehow managing to devote the entirety of his attention to the meal without every actually taking a bite. His jaw was set and finally his pursed lips clamped tightly together as he tapped the butt of his fork against the table and glanced at the bathrooms.

"That's it." He muttered under his breath, and Max sighed angrily in agreement.

"It's been forty-five minutes." She growled as Alec pushed his chair away from the table, "I dunno _what_ he's doin' in there, but this is insane!"

"Want me to go?" Alec queried quietly, and Max nodded wryly.

"Yeah I'm spoutin' enough steam to make a kettle blush. You go on."

"Dad?" Nyx piped up from behind the large advertising leaflet that was covering half her face, "Just… don't go makin' a scene, _please_? I mean, wouldn't it be better just to leave'im till he comes out rather then drag him kicking and screaming in the middle of a restaurant?" The sour tone in the girl's voice suggested she was still rolling in the spotlight that was shining on their family and was unwilling to allow Brac's tantrum to paint the picture black if she could help it.

"I ain't plannin' on draggin' him, Nyxie." Alec laughed quietly as he stood up and Max involuntarily straightened the back of his jacket, "But he can't just go throwin' fits in public like this. It's stupid and it's immature."

"And he's thirteen." Max reminded her mate, and Alec raised his eyebrows with a grin that indicated he was _thoroughly_ pissed-off.

"And still small enough to man-handle."

"Ugh." Max rolled her eyes and stomped on Alec's toes underneath the table, "You're such a…"

"Golden-Boy, baby!" Alec winked and ruffled her hair as he turned to leave.

"I shoulda named you 'Dick'!" Max called after him sourly and scowled as her mate laughed loudly in response.

"Hey Mom, when we get to Uncle Logan's house, can we go to the laser-tag place like last time?" Nyx instantly filled the awkward silence with a barrage of holiday spirit.

Max shrugged and tried not to smirk at the myriad of stares Alec's retreating form was receiving from every female head in the restaurant, "I dunno, Nyxie. It's probably not even there anymore."

"Yeah but if it is, can we go?" Nyx persisted as she scooped out a spoonful of ice-cream, "Please, please, please?"

"We'll see, okay?" Max couldn't help but laugh at her daughter's total switch of personality. It was as if Nyx had reverted back to her eager seven year-old self. Max hadn't seen her baby girl so excited in years, and it was doing her and Alec a world of good.

Brac, on the other hand, seemed to be returning to a different – a far less pleasant – portion of his childhood.

_Ah well…once we get him chattin' up Xina, I'm sure everything will be just fine. _Max allowed the thought to soothe her ruffled nerves…nerves which suddenly stood on end all over again as Alec stalked towards the table with a calm, composed expression that Max instantly interpreted to mean total freak-out.

"What's up?" She asked, unsure as to whether or not she wanted him to answer.

Alec sniffed and resumed his seat with a raise of his eyebrows, "Nyxie, would you mind bein' an angel and gettin' me a coffee from the counter?" He smiled tightly as his daughter nodded and accepted the bills he was handing her, "Oh and get yourself a juice or somethin' as well, okay?"

Nyx rolled her eyes at the obvious bribe and stood up, sauntering in the direction of the service desk and leaving her parents to themselves.

"What's the matter, Alec?" Max queried cautiously, and he squinted at Nyx's small frame taking her place in the queue.

"Can't find Brac."

"What?" Max barked and slapped Alec's arm – her own non-verbal demand that he face her. Alec turned to eye his mate with cold, stony eyes that denoted he had shut himself off for fear of losing control of his emotions.

"I checked all the stalls. He's gone. I dunno where."

"Well we have to find him, come on!" Max was already pulling on her jacket and rising to her feet, "Did you call him yet?"

"Just about to." Alec was one step ahead and pulling out his phone with a determined expression as he stood up. "I'll be right back, okay? Don't go anywhere."

Max scowled in a manner which totally didn't suit the pure worry in her deep brown eyes, "Just hurry up!"

Alec headed out of the restaurant and clocked in Brac's number as he came to a halt just outside the sliding doors of the eating complex. The phone buzzed for what seemed like eternity and Alec felt mounting fear start to drown him.

"C'mon, Brac, pick up your phone." He muttered as his eyes scanned the parking lot for any signs of his truant son. Suddenly Brac's voice crackled over the receiver.

"_This is Brac McDowell and I'm not takin' your call for one of the following reasons_…"

Alec would normally have laughed at the bitter tone of his son's recently-recorded message, but today he was close to tears and even closer to breaking someone's face…and really not in the mood to deal with Brac's attitude.

"_One, cuz I don't attach my phone to my fucking hip which is somethin' you'll have to deal with, Two, cuz I'm sleeping, dead or high, or Three, because I just really don't wanna answer you. Take your pick and if you have to leave me a message, make it a good one for cryin' out loud_."

The grating BEEP of an answering machine didn't come fast enough for Alec.

"Brac, it's Dad. Where the hell are you? C'mon, I _know_ you have your phone with you and I don't _give_ a shit if you don't really wanna answer it. You'd damn well _better_ answer it and if you're sleeping, dead _or_ high, I'm gonna kick your ass, you understand me?" Alec rubbed his face and glanced skyward to fight off the tears that were brimming in his eyes, "Look, just…at _least_ call and let us know if you're okay." Alec sniffed and scowled viciously at a chunky pair of tourists who were staring at him, "Right well…call me when you get this. Love you, kid."

When he re-entered the complex, Alec's heart-rate suddenly settled to a relatively normal pulse as he spotted Nyx dragging an indifferent-looking Brac behind her from a nearby chain store.

"I found him, you guys!" Nyx yelled jubilantly as Max appeared from around a bend with a tight-lipped expression that mingled relief and rage in a perfectly terrifying manner.

"Thank God!" She snapped, moving to stand beside Alec as their children approached them. "Where the _hell_ were you?" Max barked the question at an apathetic Brac. Surprisingly, (considering that a hearty percentage of Max and Alec's acquaintances had professed that death would be a sweeter option then facing the joint barrage of the couple's ire) the boy shrugged and even dared to grin from behind his sunglasses.

"Gettin' your Doritos." Brac held up a pack of Tangy Cheese Doritos with an obnoxious smirk that both his parents nearly smacked off his face.

"There's a little law of etiquette known as asking before doing!" Max fairly yelled the statement, totally oblivious to (or, more likely, choosing to ignore) the stares that their family was receiving as the air around the transgenics crackled with tension.

"There's _another_ one known as bein' grateful for favors people throw you way!" Brac responded as he waved the packet of chips in front of his mother, "D'you want'em or not?"

Max's eyes widened dangerously and she snatched the Doritos before cuffing Brac upside the head angrily, "We're leaving! Get your ass in the car, _now_!"

The icy silence with which the McDowell clan made their way to the waiting Lexus was purely momentary. The minute the car pulled onto the highway and there was no chance of escape for anybody, Nyx McDowell's raging temper hit boiling point. She cast Alec and Max an angry glare of disbelief at the silence radiating from the pair before twisting to her brother and hitting the 'Stop' button on his blaring I-Pod.

Brac's eyes opened angrily from underneath his shades and he scowled at his sister before pushing 'Play' once more, "Cut it out, Nyx."

"Oh what, this?" Nyx raised her eyebrows and thumbed off the music again.

"Yeah. That." Brac snapped as he resumed listening and tucked his I-Pod deep into his jacket pocket.

Nyx huffed loudly and proceeded to yank the headphones out of Brac's ears without even gracing her brother with a glance.

"Nyx, what the fuck…"

"Oh I'm sorry, Brac- am I annoying you?" Nyx asked with a sweet smile pasted on her lips which mirrored Max's I-hate-you face.

"Somethin' like that, yeah!" Brac snarled.

"Kinda like the way you piss _us_ off when you pull a vanishing act in a mall labeled 'Nowheresville Refreshment'?" Nyx yelled, and then latched tightly to Brac's torso in an instinctive brace as the Lexus swerved hard onto a shoulder and screeched to a halt.

"Holy fucking shit, Dad, what the hell…" Brac began furiously as he untangled himself from his sister.

"That's exactly what I wanna freaking know!" Alec barked behind him as he unbuckled his seatbelt and twisted to glare at his children, clearly at breaking point, "Whatever's got you kid's panties in a twist is gonna high-tail it outta here _real_ fast or the two o' you are _never_ parkin' your asses in this car again - you understand me?"

"Oh for the love of Jesus!" Brac screamed in frustration as he shoved open his door and threw off his seatbelt. "Will you all just give me a fucking break?!"

"Get your ass back in here NOW – like it already happened, Brac!" Alec roared, and Max, who had remained stoically silent up until that point, buried her head in her hands and groaned.

This was going to be a long vacation…and not exactly in the way that they had hoped.

"Max! We were starting to wonder if you guys were still gonna show!" Logan's exuberant countenance had Max flushing with shame as she recalled how many times she and Alec had been forced to stand the Cale's up when Duty not only called but periodically screamed for attention.

"Well if the invitation is no longer standing, we could always go eat Diner Turkey!" Max teased with a grin as Logan stepped aside and ushered her family into his semi-detached, suburban home. The Penthouse and all accompanying luxuries of bachelorhood had been crowded out steadily as his and Asha's family had grown.

Not that Logan cared. The suave cyber-hero had adjusted so marvelously to fatherhood and family life that even Alec the Cynical - self-appointed critic to the do-gooder - had been forced to take his hat off to Logan Cale.

Logan, in an equally uncharacteristic display of amiability, had been quick to point out that Alec McDowell might not be too poor a candidate for the Father of the Year Award himself.

But that had all occurred before Brac and Xina hit their moody pubescent years. After one too many scathing disagreements on the role of a parent during stormy adolescence (with Logan insisting that a preteen would need a lot of space, a large listening ear, and a great deal of empathy – and Alec clinging wryly to his own take on the issue – 'the space, the ear, the empathy, and a kick in the pants') the two men had declared unofficial war.

"Max, you made it! Thank God!" Asha was standing in the hallway, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel and beaming from behind scruffy wisps of blonde hair falling out of a ponytail.

"I'm not feelin' the love here, Asha!" Alec whined petulantly as he clapped Logan on the back and nodded at the pleasant wisp of a woman in front of him. Asha had always been too thin, but her skeletal appearance had the protective X5 – who always ensured that those he cared about were properly nourished – truly concerned.

"Sorry, Alec, but I really did only want to see Max!" Asha laughed as she exchanged a hug with Max and raised an eyebrow at Alec in a manner which plainly read 'you're still freaking hot'. "You're still freaking arrogant, you know that?"

"Oh yes," Max smiled acidly as Logan rolled his eyes and muttered exaggeratedly under his breath, "He most certainly does!"

Alec clutched his heart with a wounded expression but was squelched in his efforts to spew out a witty comeback as Brac and Nyx shuffled into the house and Asha squealed.

"Oh my God! They're huge! You're huge – look at you guys!" The woman jumped forward gleefully as Nyx barreled into her arms, "What have they been feeding you?"

"Doritos!" Nyx quipped with a sly glare in Brac's direction, and her brother responded with an 'up yours' arm gesture.

"Wind it down, you two." Max warned as she unzipped her jacket and relieved Alec of his.

"I remember now," Logan was laughing as he closed the front door behind the clan and made his way into the large kitchen, "The four of you packed into that sardine can of a car for five hours is guaranteed to have atrocious repercussions!"

"Oh so that's how it's gonna be, Logie, huh?" Alec was smiling from ear to ear as they followed the man into the kitchen, "You wanna start the 'car war' all over again, cuz if you recall, I did win the last round!"

"The only thing that thimble of a machine you call a Lexus would _ever_ win you," Logan's smirk was mirroring Alec's and behind his glasses, the man's eyes were beaming, "is a trophy at the Auto Raspberry Awards!"

"Yeah well better a Golden Raspberry then a Puke-colored Hatchback!" Alec retorted scathingly as he rested a hand on the counter and another on his hip.

"For the last time, it's _Teal_ and the term 'Hatchback' went out with 'coloured' and 'ethicist'!" Logan seethed, and Asha and Max exchanged resigned sighs.

"It begins." Asha stated with a groan which quickly transformed into a giggle as she held Nyx at arm's length for appraisal. "My God, you are _too_ beautiful, girlie! Lemme look at you!"

"Ah, just hit an autumn growth spurt." Nyx shrugged with a sly smile as she motioned to her expanding chest, "Heard Xina's got these too nowadays!"

"Nyxie!" Max frowned through her grin, and Asha laughed.

"Yeah she's comin' up to a C-cup now…bet Alec's not too happy 'bout his baby girl transforming into eye-candy jail-bait!"

"Oh tell me about it! He wants to skewer every male in sight."

"Really? Logan's not that bothered." Asha knit her eyebrows briefly before she shrugged, "Oh well. Hey could you grab me the sugar, Max?"

"Sure." Max subconsciously began to aid Asha in the woman's efforts to get together some coffee. Max and Alec knew Logan and Asha's home the way the other couple knew Max and Alec's apartment. For years now, the Cale's home had been the McDowell's home, and vice-versa…although it was most likely the fact the families rarely graced each other's homes that kept the tradition alive and kicking.

"Isn't it annoying how guys can be so darn concerned about one aspect of your children's lives and yet…" Asha waved a teaspoon belligerently in the air, "so totally un-attuned to the _really_ important things?"

"Like what?" The teasing voice sounding directly in her ear followed by the sharp pinch to her ass caused Asha to squeal and jar her head around. Logan stood behind her with a mocking grin pasted on his face.

"Like barging in on private conversations!" Asha shook her finger in his face before slamming her fist into his arm…and gaining a subsequent wince from Alec, who instinctively cradled his left shoulder.

"I hardly think the kitchen classifies as an appropriate location for secret girl-talk!" Logan responded matter-of-factly, hardly cowed by the assault as he turned to a corner of the kitchen and addressed a sullen Brac.

"What, no hug? No manly slug to the gut? No 'wassup, my brother-from-another-mother?'"

"Hello, Logan." The muttered slur of the words and the green eyes narrowed into slits prompted the older man to raise an eyebrow and turn to Max and Alec.

"He still hung over from the morphine or something?"

"Just hasn't caught enough o' the holiday spirit – have ya, Brac?" Max chirped with a smile and raise of her eyebrows which, loosely interpreted, meant 'copy my face this instant or I'll lay some serious smack down on your head'.

Brac flashed Logan an exaggerated grin which bordered on terrifying as his eyes flared wide and his teeth grit together. "Better?"

"Uh, no thanks. Think if those are my only two options, I'll stick with the Moody Brac as opposed to the Joker Incarnate!" Logan shook his head and then looked up as the oven chimed, "Sorry guys – duty calls!"

"Haven't seen the kiddos around yet." Alec observed while throwing a fleeting scowl in Brac's direction and getting an acerbic shrug in response.

"Uh Cade's stayin' with a friend. He'll be home for dinner tomorrow, though - don't worry. And Xina was around here somewhere." Logan crouched beside the oven and poked at the giant bird nestled inside.

"I think she went out, baby." Asha called matter-of-factly as she dished out Filter Coffee into four large mugs.

"You _think_ she went out?" Alec raised his eyebrows with an incredulous squint that suggested he couldn't even fathom the concept of being unaware of one's children's location 24-7. "Where'd she go? I'll drag her ass home…"

"I have no _idea_ where Xina went!" Logan paused in his work to frown up at the X5, "And you will do no such thing, Alec!"

"Will if I freaking want to!" Alec retorted with a disapproving glare at Logan, "She's what, _twelve_, and you're lettin' her prowl the hoods on a Friday evening?"

"Yeah, Logan - don't you know she could get gang-raped then sold on the Black Market and shipped off to Columbia?" Brac mimicked his dad's condemning tone as he waved away the juice Asha was offering him, "No thanks, Asha."

"Think you're funny?" Max nodded at her son with a scowl, and Brac responded with a squinty-eyed grin.

"Just a little."

"Yeah well I'm not so sure a certain tight-ass _White_-ass would agree with you!" Alec retorted between a turgid pair of lips which suggested he wasn't finding _any_ humor in his son's joke after the harrowing Conclave ordeal which ought to have sobered Brac's viewpoint on 'kidnap' by several degrees at least.

"Alright, enough of this!" Asha called over the 'bling' of the microwave as she pulled on a pair of oven gloves and removed a steaming mug from the machine, "Can't the banter at _least_ wait until after we've had dinner? Sheesh!"

"Honey, I'm home!" The loud proclamation interrupted the barrage of snide responses Asha's statement had induced. A short, curvaceous teenager strutted brazenly into the kitchen as the front door slammed shut violently behind her.

Maxine Cale (or Xina, as she had been dubbed) let out a squeal of delight as she spotted the McDowells. "Oh my god! No freaking way! You showed! You guys actually showed!"

Xina laughed and clapped her hands together as Max threw an arm around the thirteen year-old's shoulder and squeezed her affectionately.

"Long time no see, Xina! How's it going?" Max stepped back and gasped suddenly, "Whoa! What did you…"

"What the _hell_ did you do to your hair?" Alec finished, and Xina grinned at the critical frown on the dashing X5's face as she jumped up onto his waist and wrapped her legs and arms around him in tight hug.

"Dreadlocks! Don't you like'em, Uncle Alec?" Xina pouted as Alec spun her around once then placed on her feet and tugged at the messy blonde dreads twisting in the girl's once-sleek hair.

Was it just him or did the air around Xina smell ever-so-faintly of smoke?

"Not really, no!" Alec stated flatly, and raised his eyebrows at the skimpy black shorts and loose-woven sweater which was falling off Xina's shoulders, "And is that what you went out in? Where's the rest of it?"

"Xina, honey, can you whip up a cream sauce?" Logan merely planted a kiss on his daughter's head and then brushed past her to access a cupboard, "Your mom wants to do it but we both know hers comes out like Paper Mache."

Xina's eyes were downcast and for a brief moment her pierced lips twisted in what seemed to be disappointment. One quick eye-roll later, however, the girl was shrugging her shoulders and obliging her father.

The incident did not go unnoticed by either Alec or Max. Both exchanged confused and worried looks momentarily and Max opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Xina.

"Nice pout there, Brackie. Is it new?"

Brac sniffed and raised his eyebrows as a slow grin spread over his face, "Older then that rack o' yours."

"Hey!" Alec and Xina barked at the same time, but Xina threw the man a fierce glower which suggested she could fight her own battles and then flashed Brac a saucy smirk.

"Well, judging by your gravelly grunt, it seems your _balls_ have finally dropped. Kudos to you on that one, Brac!"

"Xina! Quit playin' around and cough up that sauce!" Logan called from behind the counter as he accepted the coffee mug Asha was holding out to him, "Thanks, babe."

"You know what, Dad? I just remembered that I have a butt-load of homework to do before Monday." Xina turned to Logan with a matter-of-fact smile, "So how about I go and finish that up and Uncle _Alec_ can make you your precious sauce?"

"Why were you out if you had homework?" Asha queried, pausing in her work to raise an eyebrow at her daughter.

"_Because_ I needed to research some stuff and last I checked, we don't have an in-built library!" Xina's body language and the tone in her voice suggested so very blatant a lie that Alec and Max were staggered by their friends' apparent total oblivion.

"Well we _do_ have computers and I believe you have a laptop for that very purpose, Maxine!" Asha ran a thin hand through her scruffy, short hair and looked down at her daughter with sad, weary eyes.

"It's frozen. Cade messed with the keyboard again." Xina responded bluntly before turning to cast a pleading smile at Alec, "C'mon, Uncle Alec – whaddya say?"

"Cream sauce ain't really my thing." He informed Xina turgidly as he placed a hand on her shoulder and leant forward to speak in a lower voice, "Neither are girlies who lie."

Xina pulled in her lips and twisted her lip ring for a moment before she pulled away from Alec's grasp and headed quickly up the stairs. "I'm going to take a shower!"

"What about the sauce?" Logan grouched, and Max glared at him accusingly.

Logan scrunched up his face in confusion as Asha and Alec joined in. "What?"

Dinner at the Cale's was a relatively mundane event considering the company seated around the table. Logan and Asha had spread a veritable feast out and then proceeded to dig in with very little commentary except the usual pleasantries. Max and Alec attempted to contain their fury at the lack of forthcoming and handled their friends separately, with Max barraging Logan with softly-worded, loaded questions, and Alec focusing the full laser-beam of his irresistible sexuality and masculine protectiveness to coax Asha into eating.

Neither of the X5s was having much success at their endeavors, and Alec was just on the brink of hauling Logan outside for a little man-to-man 'discussion', when Asha piped up.

"I thought Brac and Xina said they'd be down any second."

"It's a figure of speech, baby." Logan took a sip of his wine and frowned at the aftertaste.

"Yeah well it's been almost twenty minutes now! Their food's getting cold!" Asha began to stand up, but Alec laid a comforting hand on her shoulder and eased the woman back into her seat.

"I got it, don't worry."

"You sure?" Asha crinkled her brow as she resumed her chair. Alec's gut twisted with concern as he took in the gaunt, sallow face and sad, anxious eyes that seemed to bask in the healthy, tanned complexion and bright green eyes of her friend.

"Definitely." Alec patted Asha's shoulder as he stood and nodded briefly at Max, "Excuse me a second, people."

"Tell Brac I'm gonna eat his mushrooms if he doesn't get down here now!" Nyx called after her dad as he headed up the stairs.

"You want some more mushrooms, Nyxie? I can always go and fry some up." Asha seemed unusually eager to be absent from the table, and Max was eyeing her friend with unabashed alarm.

"No, no!" Nyx stated quickly as Asha stood up, "Please, Auntie Asha! Don't bother with me – I eat like a horse!"

"Excuse me?" Asha laughed and ruffled Nyx's hair, "My favorite little woman has _finally_ shown up at my house after three long years and I am _going_ to treat her like a princess! So get over it!"

"Asha-a-a…" Nyx whined, glancing at her mom for support, but Max just smiled as she pushed away from the table and rose to her feet.

"You know what? I'll join you, Asha. Logan, you want more mushrooms?"

"I'd kinda prefer the female company!" Logan stated wryly as he eyed his empty wine glass, and Max bent down to speak into his ear with a farcical giggle.

"Well you'll have Nyxie!" She planted a quick kiss on his cheek before heading off with Asha.

Nyx and Logan stared awkwardly at each other for a long, silent moment before the quiet was shattered by several loud thuds and crashes sounding from upstairs, followed by a deep-throated "Get your asses down those stairs before I kick'em till kingdom come!"

Logan grinned sarcastically as he refilled his wine glass, "You know I uh really missed your Daddy."

Nyx smiled in response, "I'll rent him out to you for the holidays."

A rebellious though frightened-looking Xina stomped into the dining room and threw herself dramatically in to a chair, hastily shoving a forkful of food into her mouth to avoid answering any questions. Nyx cringed at the sound of yelling from the hallway above them and winced at Xina and Logan.

"Sorry for my embarrassing family, you guys."

Logan finally burst out laughing and Xina blushed deeply as she shoveled another bite of food into her mouth and muttered between chews, "They're our family too, Nyxie."

Nyx raised her eyebrows with a beaming grin at the statement and then grimaced as Brac's roar pierced the floorboards.

"I don't give a shit!...No! You don't freaking tell me what to do in front of my friends!"

"What's going on up there?" Asha poked her head into the hallway and glanced up the stairs with a worried expression, and Max appeared shortly after.

"Just boy's bein' boys." She guided the other woman back to the kitchen by the shoulders with a brief look of complete bewilderment up the staircase.

Brac and Alec had been clashing more then usual recently, but so far neither had resorted to screaming and certainly not to blows. But Max's glance up the stairwell had afforded her a first-class view of Alec calmly pinning Brac to the wall by his collar while the kid bellowed virulently in his ear.

Exactly what the hell was going on?

Max had one or two ideas of her own. _But_, she reminded herself as she returned to the issue at hand, _No way am I hiking up that staircase while it's World War freaking Three! _

Meanwhile, upstairs, Max's description of the head-on collision between her boys was nearing full-on accuracy.

"Would you get your hands off me?" Brac's temper was still inflamed but he was beginning to lower his pitch due to the fact that Alec had not matched the kid's screams with any of his own so far.

"Once we've gotten somethin' straight." Alec stated in a calm voice as he held Brac solidly in place and lowered his head the half-a-foot it took for their eyes to meet, "Now I dunno _why_ you're behavin' the way that you have been. Maybe you're angry or something's botherin' you that I don't know."

"Ugh," Brac rolled his eyes and looked away but Alec tugged at his collar and resumed eye contact.

"Uh uh! Listen. If you wanna talk about it, I'm here, Maxie's here. If you don't wanna tell us, you can talk to Logan or Asha or even Xina if you want to. I don't care." Alec's eyebrows were arched and his jaw was set firmly, "If you got nothin' to say to us, that's fine. It can simmer. But you're gonna stop this lil' act o' yours right now, regardless!"

"Or you'll what?" Brac hissed, subdued but not extinguished, "Kick my ass?"

Alec grinned dangerously and dipped his head to the side as he released his son, "Keep makin' a stink?" The smirk left his face and his eyes glinted seriously, "I'm not gonna kick your ass. Might just hide it, though."

Brac scoffed in disbelief at the insinuation that Alec – who hadn't done so in almost a full year – was still not opposed to laying down some smack on his son if he was pushed into doing so. The fact that Alec had even _broached_ the subject to begin with meant that one more strop on Brac's part would likely find him staring at the floor for a good long while – at least, that had been the way it worked before.

_Yeah_, Brac reminded himself as he squinted incredulously at Alec and uttered a "Yeah right!" _Cept for the fact I'm thirteen now, for fuck's sake_.

"Try me." Alec responded with a raise of his eyebrows and a shrug. "Actually, don't – I wouldn't recommend it, dude."

_Oh my fucking god, he's actually serious_. Brac kept up his mordant glare for another full minute as Alec held it matter-of-factly and waited for his son to make the next move. Finally Brac dropped his eyes and sighed in frustration with a tight purse of his lips.

"I'm not hearin' an echo on that, Brac." Alec glanced over his shoulder at a sudden uptight flare in the rumbled conversation below them.

"What do you want – a 'sir, yes sir'?" Brac muttered as he kept his eyes on the ground and rubbed at the back of his neck, clearly seething but not willing to risk testing Alec. The X5 never made a threat he wasn't willing to back, and angry as he was, Brac would keep it to himself if it meant avoiding the potentially embarrassing - not to mention painful - experience of having Alec beat his ass within earshot of the Cales…Xina especially.

"Nah, just your usual 'Whatever, Dad' will do." Alec sniffed and threw another look down the staircase as Xina stormed into the hallway and threw her hands in the air.

"You always do this! It is _so_ unfair!" She was yelling as she headed for the front door with a vicious scowl on her pretty round face.

"Xina, hold up!" Logan's voice called out from the dining room, but it sounded more like a plea then a command.

"No, Dad! This is stupid and I'm not putting up with it, okay?" Xina slammed the door shut behind her with a bang that sent a ripple through the house.

Brac looked up through narrow eyes after he watched the girl leave to find Alec eyeing him with a look of suspicious concern.

"Oh what now, for crying out loud?"

"Got somethin' you wanna tell me, Brac?" Alec queried carefully, and Brac snorted as he began to limp and gripped the rail for support.

"Nothin' that won't earn me a hiding, apparently, so I'll save it for another time."

"That's _not_ what I said, smart-ass." Alec reminded his son as he took hold of Brac's arm and helped him down the staircase, "You can tell me anything you want and you know it. Just do it with a bit o' respect."

Asha making for the door and Logan tugging on her arm recaptured the McDowell's attention. "Asha, leave her." Logan whispered gently, and Asha yanked her arm away.

"She can't just walk out of the house, Logan!" Asha protested as she pulled on a trench-coat and a pair of ankle boots, her pale face flushed from anger and evident embarrassment at the scene her daughter was causing.

"It's okay. Max is tailin' her. They'll be back in a few minutes, Ash! She just needs to let off some steam." Logan stated patiently, rubbing a hand over his forehead and squinting his eyes closed with obvious signs of exhaustion.

His night was about to get a heck of a lot longer.

Alec clamped a hand down on Logan's shoulder, causing the older man to jump and eye his X5 friend dourly. Alec was wearing his strained smile which suggested that a barely-contained tidal wave of displeasure was about to break the dam of his façade.

"Hey Logie, mind steppin' outside for a minute? Gotta run somethin' by you."

Logan scrunched up his eyebrows, "Can it wait?"

"Uh no it can't." Alec's brow furrowed up and he smiled apologetically at Asha, who was eying the menfolk dubiously. "Sorry Asha." He flailed a hand flippantly as he and Logan headed out the front door, "Guy stuff."

"I'll bet." Asha quipped stonily as Alec flashed his mate a cheesy grin and closed the door behind him.

"So you gonna spill it, Cyber-hero," Alec queried as he and Logan stalked slowly along the deserted sidewalk under the orange glow of the streetlamps, "Or am I gonna have kick it outta you?"

Logan laughed and shook his head as he dug his hands into his jacket pocket and looked at his shoe, "Seems to me you and Max've got your own issues to sort out."

Alec shrugged, "Takes one to know one." He ground to a halt underneath a particularly garish streetlight and tucked his hands into his pockets as Logan grudgingly followed suit. "So come on, you gonna spit it out here? What's goin' on with you guys? You're drinkin' up a storm," Alec counted out the main focuses of his concern on his fingers with a narrowing of his eyebrows, "Asha's a freaking twig and isn't eatin', Xina's gone all punk-with-a-funk…"

"Alec," Logan sighed dismally – but Alec wasn't nearly finished.

"I'm startin' to get real worried about what I'm gonna find when Cade shows up! C'mon, Logan, what is it that I'm missin' here? Why're you shuttin' me and Maxie out?" Alec's forehead creased and he held Logan's gaze steadfastly.

Logan sighed once more as he blew out his breath. After a minute, he laughed quietly, "You know…I think this whole parenting thing is way over my head, Alec."

Alec snorted softly with a small grin, "Yeah well join the club, man." He sniffed and glanced over his shoulder at the single car which roared past.

"It's just that ever since I took this job at the Head Office, things have gotten busier and busier." Logan shook his head and leant against the lamppost dejectedly, "I mean, I've tried to find time to be there for Asha and the kids, but it's not easy with the pressure mounting and the problems at Xina's school…"

"What problems?" Alec prodded with a frown and purse of his lips.

Logan shrugged and rubbed at his eyes, "Uh, she got suspended for soft drug abuse but that led to investigation into her family and one of the teachers got hold of some major evidence connecting me to Eyes Only."

"What?!" Alec scrunched up his eyebrows in disbelieving alarm as his eyes widened and narrowed at the same time, "When the hell were you gonna tell us about this?"

"Alec, I hate to break it to you," Logan snapped as he stared callously at his X5 pal, "but you and Max are _not_ exactly in a position to be of _any_ kinda assistance to me and Asha! I mean, you're walled up in Terminal City, for crying out loud."

"So?" Alec sounded like a petulant child demanding why the fact that sugar would rot his teeth prevented him from having an ice-cream, "You know, friends are sorta meant to be the people you pick up the phone and scream at when everything's messin' up!" He spread his hands and scowled, "I mean, when Brac was in hospital, you and Asha were the _first_ people we called! How hard is it to return the freaking favor?"

"If Xina was being admitted for a viral fever and a stab wound, I'm sure Asha and I would've given you a ring!" Logan retorted obstinately, "But what went down was nothing you could've helped with!"

"No, that's just what you _assumed_, and now look at the mess we gotta help you two sort out!" Alec snapped as he folded his arms across his chest and glared sternly at the tipsy man in front of him. "And before you say another goddamn word 'bout it not bein' our problem; the way Max and I figure it, you're family, and that means we help you whether you like it or you freaking don't!"

Logan rolled his eyes skyward and held his view of the stars. After a moment, his blue orbs welled with tears, "They found weed in her locker, Alec."

Alec's eyes shut tightly at the disconcerting news and he blew out a breath, glancing at the concrete under his feet as Logan continued.

"I just don't get it. I mean, you know Xina." Logan smiled with a chuckle, "Remember that time at the beach when she and Brac hid in those crags for an hour?" He rubbed his forehead and laughed aloud at the memory, "She was afraid of getting _eaten_ by the _crabs_ and got the piss taken outta her by Brac for being a sissy."

Alec snorted with a smirk as he studied the gritty lamppost and recalled the story in question, "Yeah well Brac wasn't as cocky after he got his hide thrashed for playin' hooky on the biggest beach in Florida!"

Logan laughed once more and then pushed off from the streetlight, "Anyhow…I guess I just can't figure out what's gotten into Xina…"

"Can I give you a hint?" Alec nudged his friend with a cautious raise of his eyebrows, "Don't be takin' this the wrong way – it's gonna bite a little, 'kay?"

Logan smirked dryly as he eyed Alec dubiously, "Wow, now that's gonna be a new and foreign feeling!"

"While we're on the subject o' feelings," Alec continued to walk down the pavement and Logan wearily joined him, "I'm gonna ask you if yours are just so freaking messed right now that you're not gettin' what the deal with Xina really is."

"Enlighten me, oh Alec the Super-Father!" Logan retorted with a broad grin that belied the anxiety in his tired eyes.

"Okay, you call me that again and we're done, pal!" Alec growled, evidently disliking even a mocking hint at the concept of his being a 'super' anything…well, a super-lay wouldn't have gone down sideways…

"But seriously though," Alec graced Logan with a sincere, sidelong glance as the two men scuffed their feet along the pavement, "Just cuz Xina was a good girl all her life, don't mean she won't be testing the limits just like every other kid her age out here. Now smokin' weed is bad but it ain't nothing compared to what she could be doin' with herself!" Alec shook his head at the cynical snort from Logan, "Nah, nah, bud, hear me out for a sec, okay? Seriously, take it from me - there are worse stunts Xina could be pullin', and you and I both know that. The stuff she's doin' now – pimpin' herself up, poking holes in her skin, skippin' the house…" Alec raised his eyebrows and Logan was taken aback by the morose expression on the normally jubilant X5's face.

"She's pinin' for attention, man. I'm betting Xina's just tryin' to get you to notice she exists!"

"I notice she exists…" Logan began, insulted, but Alec warded him off with an angry glower and stern finger jab.

"Yeah but what the fuck are you doing about it? That's my question here, Logan!"

The sound of a trash can clattering caused Alec and Logan to whirl around at the noise. The men peered through the darkness just in time to catch a glimpse of Xina disappearing down a side alleyway. Logan sighed through his nose and Alec raised an eyebrow and turned to his friend.

"Case in point, ol' buddy. She made a noise. Means she wanted us to see her."

"Or it could just mean she tripped with those monstrous platform soles she insists on wearing." Logan protested lamely as he stared down the dark, foreboding side street through which his daughter had just disappeared.

Alec glared and resisted the urge to slap Logan upside the head. One look at the man's face informed Alec that Logan was exhausted and stressed and that Xina had pulled this particular stunt on more then one occasion. Alec felt a burst of sympathy and moved the hand he was about to cuff over Logan's skull to rest on the man's shoulder.

"Why don't you go on into the house and see if you can't get Max and Asha to sit down for a game of strip poker?" He grinned his fabulous Alec-McDowell smirk as he patted Logan's arm and nodded in the direction of the alleyway, "I'll take care o' Xina."

Logan raised an eyebrow at Alec's interesting take on exactly what recreational events a Thanksgiving reunion would entail but didn't protest. "Just don't be long." He nodded his thanks briefly before he turned and headed for the house.

Alec waited until he watched his friend step safely through the threshold of the house before he sighed heavily and rubbed his face. He turned to faced the direction of the alley just in time to catch sight of Max striding purposefully down it. Alec nodded to himself and turned to ambled into the house. His mate would take care of this one.

Max walked staunchly down the side alley, ignoring the smell of garbage and dog crap which assaulted her nostrils as she did so.

Besides, another scent hit the X5's delicate nose that threw all other odors totally askew…the smell of weed.

The crisp glow of Xina's lighter cast an eerie shadow on the small girl's face as she ignited her joint and sucked at it with a small grimace that suggested she found the experience anything but enjoyable. Large brown eyes flicked up cautiously and widened in surprised as Xina took in Max's form standing over her.

"Gonna smoke that?" Max's voice was firm, unwavering – downright scary.

Xina swallowed convulsively and then jutted out her dimpled chin with a nod, "Yeah I guess I am. You want a toke?"

Max's lips twisted, "I want you to quit playin' this game and freaking out your parents for no good reason, Maxine."

The young girl started at the drop of her full name and narrowed her eyes at Max as she blew out a whiff of marijuana, "Oh come on, Max…"

"That's still _Auntie_ Max to _you_, kid!" She informed the kid tersely as she held out her palm with a determined raise of her eyebrows, "Hand it over or toss it out. You got two choices here, Xina."

She backed away slightly and flicked at the end of her joint – but didn't let it go, "What's it to you if I smoke weed? Brac does coke and sleeps around and you and Alec don't seem to give a shit…well not Alec, anyway!"

Max paused momentarily and then dipped her head to gaze at Xina, looking sterner then she had ever seen the woman. "How do you know that?"

"What? That Brac's a druggie and a man-whore or that Brac thinks Alec doesn't give a shit?"

"Guess I'll settle for both." Max snapped angrily and Xina took another step backwards.

"Brac told me bout his…habit…back at the house." She almost whined out the words, eyes glowing with fear at the scowling X5 standing over her, "H…he's been taking for almost two weeks now! I thought you knew, I…" She whimpered and threw down her joint, stomping it out and biting at her pierced lip to keep the tears at bay. "I'm sorry, Auntie Max."

"What for, boo?" Max didn't want to, but she had to press Xina further. She had no other option.

"I uh…" Xina wiped at her smudged mascara and shook her head, "I don't think I can tell you."

Max raised an eyebrow. _Uh oh._

"Oh c'mon, Xinie, I'm your kick-ass transgenic Auntie Max! You can tell me anything!" She beamed a reassuring grin at the blonde girl, and Xina sniffed mournfully.

"Okay, well I don't think I _should_ tell you. Put it that way." Xina held Max's dark brown eyes with her own for just a moment too long. The X5's quick mind moved swiftly to a – jarring – conclusion as she took stock of the young girl's altered demeanor.

"You two weren't just 'lookin' at comics', were you?" Max stated, referring to the prolonged period of time which had kept Xina and Brac absent from dinner.

Xina licked her lips and blew out a breath heavily, "No." Her whisper had a hitch to it, "We were sorta doin' a little more then that."

"Yeah, like what?" Max prodded firmly, and Xina finally growled in frustration – frustration with herself and with her wayward friend.

"Fine! We were doin' a _lot_ more then that, okay?" She pushed past Max, who caught Xina's arm just as she tripped on her ultra-high heels.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Max steadied the young girl then held her back as she tried to make a dash for it, "Just slow down before you hurt yourself, girlie!"

Xina glanced up at Max as her eyes filled with tears, "He'll be mad! Don't tell him I told you, Max, _please_?"

"Did he hurt you?" Max hated herself for asking the question, but it begged to be broached. Brac's only proper sexual experience had been with a sadistic masochist of a woman who had brutally introduced him to the darker side of sexual intercourse. The hard reality of that fact had Max truly worried for Xina and therefore willing to overstep the bounds of tact.

"No!" Xina barked, far too quickly and far too loudly to support the veracity of her reply, "Brac would never! He's a friend!"

"Fine." Max stated in a quiet, disappointed voice as she guided the girl back towards the house, "Don't worry about it, Xina, okay? I'll take care o' this."

Xian sniffed and huddled against the warmth of Max's side as the X5 wrapped a protective arm around her, "Max, I'm sorry."

"Don't be, sweetie. Only thing you gotta be sorry for is Brac's backside once Alec gets ahold o' him!" Max laughed – it was hollow and dry and both she and Xina knew it.

"So he was wrong then?" The girl queried softly as she took in Max's shaken exterior with shining eyes, "Alec _does_ give a shit about him?"

"'Course he cares about Brac, and Brac knows it too, ungrateful little brat." Max grumbled but caught herself from launching into a tangent.

Xina sighed heavily and then shook her head, "It isn't fucking fair."

"What isn't?" Max prodded softly.

"That Alec loves Brac and my Dad hates me!" She yelled, breaking down into sobs and hiding her face in shame. Max shook her head and pulled Xina close to her chest as Xina's muffled cries filled the dank air of the night

"Your dad doesn't hate you, Xina." Max whispered as she stroked the girl's coarse dreadlocks and rubbed her back, "He loves you more then anything in whole damn world."

"Doesn't show it!" Xina insisted between sobs, face still buried Max's jacket, "When Brac does something stupid or dangerous, you ask him what's the matter…you always ask him what's the matter and you don't take 'nothing' for an answer!" Her shoulders shuddered as she burst into a fresh flood of tears, "You never let him stay upset! You never let him keep on hurting – ever!"

"Shh…" Max squeezed Xina's shoulder gently and allowed her to cry into her chest. Having an upset teenager sobbing on her shoulder was disconcerting enough to distract Max from the utter horror she would otherwise be drowning in at the thought of Brac developing a cocaine habit…and possibly stealing Xina Cale's cherry in a potentially damaging manner.

Nyx was hovering anxiously at the head of the stairs, drumming her fingertips together and waiting impatiently for her parent's safe return. Max had come home, bundled an exhausted Xina into bed and then ushered Alec back outside again. They had been absent for forty-five minutes now and Nyx was beginning to feel her nerves fray.

The front door opening and clicking shut seconds after prompted Nyx to sigh in relief and hurry down the stairs. She flashed Alec and Max an agitated smile as the two X5s nodded at their daughter.

"Hey baby, whatcha doin' up this late?" Alec queried with a frown as he pulled off his jacket, neither his nor Max's faces giving any indication that something was amiss.

Nyx shrugged with a touch of worry in her golden-brown eyes, "You guys okay?"

"Just tired." Max responded as she unzipped her leather jacket and hung it on the coat rack, "Like you oughta be as well!"

"I was sleeping!" Nyx insisted as she tugged at her sleeping clothes to prove her point, "Just I wasn't sure whether or not you needed to be let back in since Asha went out and Uncle Logan's passed out upstairs."

"Asha went out? Where'd she go?" Alec flicked off the lights in the living room and cased the surrounding area in a moment of concern before turning to his daughter.

"Uh she said she was going to the bar down the road." Nyx rubbed her arms and shivered briefly as they headed for the stairs. Alec caught the movement and draped an arm around his baby girl as she climbed a few steps and then turned to face her parents eye-to-eye.

"Okay I give." Nyx huffed as Alec and Max raised an eyebrow at their daughter in unison, "Brac got Uncle Logan insanely drunk and then went off to Cade's bedroom with the rest o' the bottle!"

"Bottle of what?" Max queried with a dubious scrunch of her nose, and Nyx jutted out her lip with a clueless eye-roll.

"Dunno…somethin' like Tennessee or Hennessey. Ugh," Nyx groaned, evidently frustrated by her older brother's foolhardy actions, "I don't know what is up with that guy, Mom! It's like he's not even Brac anymore!"

Alec nodded wryly as he steered Nyxie gently up the stairs, Max on his tail "Don't worry about it, baby. Just get some rest – tomorrow's Thanksgivin' – woo hoo!"

Nyx giggled at the whoop, "O_kay_ then." She smiled as Alec kissed her on the head and then shoved her towards Xina's empty bedroom, "Goodnight, Dad."

"Night, Nyxie." Alec peered suspiciously into the room and cased it briefly before letting out an offended whine as Nyx growled and slammed the door in his face.

Alec turned to his mate sporting an expression which was a polar opposite to the indifferent face he had been wearing since their return to the house. His green eyes were heavy with worry, fear, disappointment and a hint of anger. Max's brown orbs, on the other hand, were crackling with fire, though a sheet of sadness lay directly behind the wall of flame.

Alec opened his mouth to say something and Max raised her hands in a 'don't' manner. He slammed his jaw shut and shifted his feet, digging his hands into his belt loops and pursing at the floor while waiting for his mate to speak.

"You do what you want with him, Alec!" Max whispered in a tone which suggested she would very likely break the next face she came across, "I'm goin' after Asha." With those words, Max stormed past Alec, holding up a silencing finger over her shoulder as he opened his mouth to protest.

Alec rolled his eyes as Max disappeared down the stairs and the front door banged shut a moment later.

_Sometimes I just fucking hate her._

"Is it good?"

Brac's head jolted up from where he had been downing the final swig of Logan's pre-Pulse Hennessey whisky. His heart began to thump as he took in the sight of Alec looming in the doorway menacingly, but he swallowed and forced it to return to normal.

"You know, Cade likes it when you _knock_." Brac scoffed with a great deal more bravado then he felt as Alec reached down and snatched the bottle up from where Brac had clunked it on the floor, "I was drinking that!"

"Oh were you? I'm sorry, never woulda guessed, Brackie-boy!" Alec snorted as he reached a hand behind him and pushed the door closed, "What the hell's up with you, kid? And I mean it, I want a proper answer!"

Brac rolled his eyes, "Concerning what?"

"Oh I dunno," Alec put the bottle on a nearby desk and spread his hands with a sarcastic grin, "The fact you haven't breathed a word to me or Maxie 'bout what went down durin' your spell with White…"

"That is _none_ o' yours _or_ 'Maxie's' business!" Brac interrupted as he jabbed a finger up at Alec.

"The hell are you talkin' about? _Course_ it's our business – you're our _son_!" Alec barked with a face full of injured disbelief.

"Yeah and I can fight my own fucking battles without needin' you and Mommy to hold my freaking hand!" Brac snapped, and Alec's eyes narrowed as his mouth hung open in incredulity.

"Oh don't give me that look!" Brac hissed, "If you're expecting me to spill my guts, sob on your shoulder for an hour and then turn back into your happy lil' boy, you can suck my freaking dick!"

"Only thing I expect from you, Brac, is you come to me and Max when something's goin' sideways!" Alec responded in a low-throated voice as he eyed his intractable son with stern, sad eyes. "What I _don't_ expect and _won't_ tolerate is the way you're actin' now! Why're you pushin' us to deal with you, huh?" He tucked one hand into the pocket of his overshirt and turned the palm of the other one towards the roof, "Cuz I mean with the stuff you've pulled today, there's no way in hell I can get outta it!"

Brac scoffed, "Like what, buyin' my mother Doritos or comin' late to the dinner table?"

Alec scowled and his green eyes began to harden – which was never a good sign. "I was thinkin' more along the lines of sniffin' coke and goin' through the bases with Xina."

"Oh she told you, huh?" Brac didn't seem surprised – or afraid. But the wide flare of his nostrils told Alec he was both.

"Damn straight."

"Yeah well it's not surprising. Chicks always like to brag when they score with a trannie, so I'm told." Brac swiveled his head cockily as he rose to his feet, wincing slightly at a pull on his stitches.

"Did you guys just play a lil' game of hunt-and-peck, Brac," Alec's eyes were burning and his lips were pursed into a slight pout which suggested he was filtering a barrage of condemning words, "or were there other bases covered I'm not hearin' about?"

Brac snorted and flicked his tongue over his lip, "Ooh…_Uncle Alec_ wants all the juicy details. Isn't all o' this sorta grossing you out yet?"

Alec's jaw locked and his green eyes narrowed, "You're already _way_ across the line, kid." He moved forward slightly and Brac was duly reminded that Alec was still a good half a foot taller – not to mention a good deal bigger-built. "So if I were you, I'd cut the freaking wise-guy act and start with the sweet-talking and the ass-kissing right about now!"

Brac raised an eyebrow. If he was intimidated – which he was – he was putting up a damn good front of hiding it. "What do you wanna know, Medium Fella?"

Alec almost growled between his clenched teeth as he leant in even closer and retained smoldering eye contact, enunciating every word slowly and with painful clarity. "Did you fuck her?"

Brac tilted his head to the side matter-of-factly as he responded, "Yep. Up the ass."

The sharp backhand which sent Brac's head spinning to the side stung his mouth and lips instantly. Brac faltered back a step in surprise at the unexpected attack and looked up at Alec to see the man's eyes blazing – not with anger, but disappointment. It was a look that never failed to tear a hole into his children's hearts. Brac and Nyx could live with Alec's anger but not his disappointment.

"Well…" Brac felt the tenderness of his lip with a wry raise of his eyebrows as he avoided Alec's gaze, "Now you've gotten _that_ off your chest – anythin' _else_ Xina babbled about that you want me to elaborate on?"

"She said you thought I didn't give a shit." Alec's face had gone hard and his eyes narrowed sternly as he gripped Brac's bicep a little tighter then was necessary.

"Mm hmm, and you don't!" Brac retorted sharply, quaking inwardly at the telltale expression on his dad's face as Alec pulled him determinedly over to the bed in the corner of the room.

"Yeah? Well we'll just friggin' see about that, won't we, lil' buddy?" Alec stated bluntly and then – before Brac knew was happening – sat himself down on the edge of the bed and pulled Brac across his knees in one smooth, deadly move.

Brac struggled against Alec's strong grip as the X5 pinned his wrists to the small of his back and used his other hand to yank Brac's trousers and boxers right down to his knees.

"No! Dad, don't you do this! I'm _not_ a little kid anymore!" Brac hissed as he twisted, only to have Alec's grip on his tighten and a strong leg clamp down over his own squirming limbs, locking them into place.

_Damn those stupid Manticore vicegrips!_ Brac thought, noticing his body beginning to tremble in anticipation of the punishment that Alec was about to mete out. The last time his dad had spa...span…(No way was Brac even _thinking_ that word…he decided to go with '_hided'_) him had been almost a full year ago – and Brac didn't need to try hard at all to recall the throbbing pain that had inflamed his rear-end for up to a full three days afterwards.

Brac was just glad that so far there hadn't been any sign of the dreaded belt.

"Oh you're not, huh? Well apparently you're still immature enough to be thinkin' you can pull a stunt like this and I'm not gonna 'give a shit'! In case you haven't figured it out by now, you're wrong, Brac!" Alec was speaking between grit teeth as he laid his first swat onto Brac's unprotected backside and then began spanking his son with a hearty portion of his transgenic strength – the strength of three Ordinary men of his physical caliber.

It had always just about killed Alec whenever the X5 was forced to hide his children, but he disguised it as best he could behind a guise of stern resolution as he continued to rain down heavy-handed swats – and heavy-handed statements.

At first, Brac was raging with anger and concentrated the full throttle of his voice in berating Alec, cussing him out and swearing he would commit all manner of evil in retribution for Alec's hiding him the instant he got the chance.

Alec's response was meted out in harsher words and even harsher smacks as he informed Brac that if anybody had a right to be angry, it was Alec. His dad stated in no uncertain terms how Brac had cruelly pushed Alec into spanking him, had known perfectly well that Alec always followed through on his word and had still intentionally crossed the final lines with full knowledge of the consequences – and of the fact that it would be just as painful for Alec as it would be for Brac.

Around this point, Alec began to pick up the temp, and Brac, who had never experienced the full measure of Alec's strength, found himself doing so then.

Brac steeled his face and clamped his jaw shut, wincing with every blow but for the most part desperately struggling to retain an air of dignified silence under Alec's relentless thrashing. But what was wrenching at Brac's tear-ducts after a while was the anguished edge to Alec's voice as the X5 apologized for not being a better dad, for not putting down his foot and saving Brac from himself, for allowing him to get away with pulling the stunts for which his son was now forcing Alec to spank him.

After fifteen minutes' worth of said treatment, even a grown man would have begun bawling and begging for Alec to stop. Brac may have been a transgenic and therefore in possession of a slightly higher tolerance to pain, but he was only a thirteen year-old boy.

Brac broke as the pain overwhelmed him, "Stop…Dad, _enough_!"

"I'll stop," Alec growled harshly, "I'll stop when you can make me a promise _you'll_ stop with the drugs, and you'll stop with the sex till your mom and I give you our goddamn say-so! You promise me you'll stick close and you won't skip out on us again, you'll follow orders when you're on a mission instead o' scarin' us shitless and you'll do as you're freaking told – _then_ I'll stop, but _not_ before!"

"Okay, Dad, okay!" Brac was gasping between yelps as Alec continued mercilessly, "Just stop! Just stop and I'll promise…_FUCK_! Anything you freaking want, Dad, I'll promise…"

"Oh yeah?" Alec snorted as he rained down even harder swats then before, "Well will you _also_ promise that if somethin', _anything_ goes sideways with you, if you're in _any_ kinda trouble or you're hurtin', you're gonna come to me or Maxie with it 'stead o' keepin' it all inside?"

"I can't…_SHIT_…I can't promise, that isn't fucking fair!"

"Oh no? Well in that case you're gonna get _real_ well acquainted with that carpet pattern, Brac, cuz I am _not_ lettin' up until you do!" Alec growled sardonically, and Brac went quiet at the statement.

Alec felt a lump rise in his throat and steeled himself to continue as Brac began to pull against the grip on his hands and twist in an attempt to escape Alec's heavy-handed spanking.

"No freaking way, you don't!" Alec clenched his hand tighter around Brac's wrists and didn't let up, "C'mon, Brac, you know how this works, kid! Just make the promise and I'll quit it!"

"Dad, I can't, I can't take it anymore! _SHIT…_just stop, just _stop_!" Brac yelled, continuing to twist and writhe and causing Alec's vicegrip to tighten dangerously.

"Make the promise and I will!" Alec insisted, and then, just when Brac thought it couldn't get any worse, Alec's smacking somehow managed to intensify another notch.

It was too much for Brac. "Okay…_okay_! I promise!" Brac insisted as he stopped struggling and his voice took on the choked warble that suggested he had finally begun to cry, "Dad, just stop, just _please_!"

"You'd _better_ keep that promise, kid! If you ever freaking break it - _ever_ - not only will I kick your ass, but I will beat it so damn hard," The swatting escalated to an even higher level of intensity as Alec drove his point home, "you won't sit for a week, you understand me?"

"Yes!" Brac choked out through teeth grit in pain and a throat full of muffled sobs.

"Yes what?" Alec insisted, not letting up just yet.

"Yes I understand you…and yes I freaking promise, goddamn it!" Brac fairly yelled, and Alec sagged visibly in relief as he finally brought the hiding to a close with five final, smarting swats to Brac's rear. He winced as he surveyed the flaming red of his son's skin.

_Shit…that's prolly gonna bruise._ Alec thought with concern, feeling himself sweating slightly from exertion and his heart pounding miserably against his breastbone_._

Brac was fighting to regain control of his crying and Alec snapped back to reality, easing his son's boxer shorts and pants back up his legs and pulling Brac carefully into a standing position.

"Calm down, buddy. C'mon, it's alright. Deep breaths, deep breaths..." Alec felt like crying himself as his boy quickly wiped under his eyes and took deep breaths in a hasty effort to cloak the fact he had ever been crying in the first place. After a moment, Brac squared his shoulders and continued to inhale deeply through his nose, pressing his lips together tightly as Alec pulled his own in and searched for something to say.

Finally the X5 threw out the staple "Look, dude, I'm sorry I had to do that…"

"Yeah well so's my ass." Brac rasped out the words from between clenched teeth at the pain in his backside.

"Well you gotta admit you were askin' for it!" Alec grumbled in protest at the nauseating guilt twisting in his abs and his face scrunched up sourly, "And it's _not_ okay, in case you wonderin'. I _hate_ doin' that, Brac – it wasn't fair and you know it!"

Brac wanted to roll his eyes at the whiny tone in Alec's voice, but decided against it. Despite Alec's evident awkward discomfort at the fact he'd had to step into full _parental-mode_ with his otherwise pal-like 'lil' buddy', Brac never took a hiding from the X5 without re-discovering his healthy fear of his dad.

All the same…anyone would have thought it was 494 and not his son who had just gotten his ass beat.

"And I need to know it isn't gonna happen again for a real _long_ time at least!" Alec was continuing with an expression which suggested he'd just tasted a lemon, "I mean, c'mon, bud – if you're not gonna do it for your old man, do for it for the sake of that ass o' yours!"

Brac sniffed, "Dad, I promised. Come on."

Alec raised his eyebrows and scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably, "'Kay...just make _sure_ it doesn't, alright buddy? Cuz next time this crops up, I'm gonna have to use my belt and not my hand. You understand?"

"Yes, sir." Brac nodded and wiped his face on his sleeve before he looked up at Alec with eyes full of fear and respect – eyes Alec had always hated seeing in anyone he loved.

_Oh for crying out loud, not this again_, Alec moaned inwardly with a grimace. He had always vehemently disliked being called 'sir'. It reminded him way too much of his Manticore past and left the same unpleasant aftertaste…which was another reason Alec hated thrashing Brac; his son always ended up calling him 'Sir' for the rest of the day at least.

"Okay then." Alec stated, shifting on his feet and looking very uncomfortable. A moment of awkward silence passed between the two before Brac cleared his throat.

"Um, Dad?" He stated tentatively.

"'Sup?" Alec responded quickly.

"Isn't this uh supposed to be the part where we exchange a hug or a manly pat on the back or somethin'?"

"Dunno." Alec squinted in thought, trying to recall 'procedure'. It had been a while since he'd had to lay the smack down on Brac's ass and Alec was always eager to put the memory of such incidents as far from his mind as possible. "Uh…do you _wanna_ hug, or…?"

"Uh no, it's uh, it's cool." Brac rubbed his face wearily and then froze at precisely the same moment as Alec did. The sound of the front door creaking open and shutting quietly would only have reached the ears of the genetically enhanced.

The sound of Asha's loud giggling and Max's fierce 'shh-ing', however, would have been heard by almost anybody.

Alec smirked at the mental picture accompanying the noises of Max ushering her drunken friend to bed and then pursed his lips in confusion at the look of obvious distress on Brac's moonlit features.

It only took Alec a second to un-encrypt the subliminal message. He tilted his head and nudged his son reassuringly, "Hey – I won't tell if you won't."

Brac nodded stiffly as Max's whisper of "Alec?" sounded at the foot of the stairs, "Sure. Thanks."

Max rolled her eyes underneath their closed lids as her mate tossed onto his stomach and slammed his pillow over his head.

"Alec, that is _it_!" Max snapped in a hissed whisper as she opened her glaring chocolate eyes and propped herself up on her elbows, "You're spillin' and that's all there is to it!"

Alec's muffled groan of protest sounded from underneath his pillow, and Max, eyes blazing, sat fully up and smacked Alec's sleeping-shorts with an angry snort.

"Quit bitchin', Alec! You're givin' me an ulcer here!" Max snapped as she yanked the pillow off of his head and hit him with it, "Now hurry up and tell me what's eatin' you so I can kiss it better and get some freaking sleep!"

"Not gonna give, Maxie." Alec mumbled as he reached out and snagged his mate's pillow, shoving it under his head and closing his eyes…shortly before groaning again and moving to pull it over his face once more.

Max pulled it away with a worried expression as she lay on her stomach and leant her chin on Alec's shoulder. "C'mon, Alec – what's goin' on with you, boy? Talk to me!"

"Can't, Max – said I wouldn't tell." Alec mumbled, eyes still shut as he folded his arms under his face and slammed his forehead against his knuckles. Max tightened her lips in a brief moment of frustration before she sighed and traced a finger along the ridge of Alec's shoulder blade.

"Yeah well _we_ said we _would_ tell each other _everything_, remember?" Max smiled softly as Alec mimicked her words through a closed mouth, "Besides," She teased as she reached a hand under his shirt and her finger trailed down the hollow of his spine, causing him to tense in reluctant pleasure, "I think you'll find that we have ways of making you talk, Mr. McDowell."

Alec grunted at Max and kept his face pressed against the mattress as he mumbled out the issue that deprived him of his sleep, "I hided Brac."

Max lowered her eyes and sighed, twirling a soft circle at the small of Alec's back for a minute for responding, "Figured it was somethin' like that."

Alec's head shot up and he eyed her with a squint of surprise, "How'd you figure _that_?"

"Uh because you _always_ get this way whenever you've been forced inta layin' down the smack." Max responded with a shrug as Alec rolled onto his back and scooted up against the headboard of the double bed that graced the Cale's guest room. "Well you better not be blamin' yourself for it!" Max stated adamantly as she snuggled up beside her mate and relished his warmth and scent as Alec wrapped a firm arm around her torso and rested his head on her shoulder in the manner he always did when he was pining for comfort.

"How'm I supposed to _not_ blame myself, Max?" Alec muttered in annoyance as he flopped his other arm down on the mattress, "I mean, yeah , kid had it comin'. But I hate it…I _always_ hate it, Maxie."

"Baby, you can't be…" The X5 didn't finish her sentence. The sound of Max's breath hitching caused his head to whip and spin around at the source of his mate's alarm. Alec caught the tail-end of a wisp of a shadow flurrying past their ground-floor window.

Max was already moving slowly out of the bed, wide, determined eyes glued to the window as she blended into the shadows dancing across the room. Alec followed suit and took up his position to the right of the window, back pressed against the wall as he signaled to Max to check the rest of the downstairs. He could feel her silent nod as she slipped quietly out of the bedroom, still clad in her cotton pajama pants and spaghetti-strap T-shirt.

Alec pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes as another shadow displayed itself on the wall opposite him, etched in the eerie yellow street light. Judging by the build, the intruder was male and smaller then Alec. The X5 rolled his eyes as he heard the window's lock being worked at and then the glass sliding quietly aside.

_Logan, what the fuck is that about? Your security system had better just be offline for an upgrade…_

Max stalked silently into the living room, eyes peeled for signs of trouble. Max froze briefly as she happened across Xina who was still sprawled out on the sofa. The young girl opened her eyes and glanced up at Max with fear – and silent relief. Xina raised her eyebrows and stabbed a finger in the direction of the front hall, and Max nodded, breezing quickly past and brushing a hand on the girl's arm reassuringly.

As she entered the darkened hallway, Max felt her spine tingle and spun tightly around, fists balled up to her chest, just in time to block a blow from a dark-clad figure towering over which had appeared out of nowhere. Max caught the extended fist as it moved in for a second shot and yanked at the arm, pulling her assailant towards her and getting in a slug to the side of their ski-masked head. Her attacker lurched sideways with the blow and used the tilt to swing a nasty kick to Max's ribs.

Max took the hit without a complaint and administered payback in the form of a vicious twist to the arm she still held captive, yanking her opponent into a bend which allowed her to plow a left hook repeatedly into their face.

"Roll with _that_ one, bitch!" Max whispered between clenched teeth as the masked attacker buckled to the floor and was sent swiftly into unconsciousness as Max's bare heel kissed their face with a double dose of slam. She raised an eyebrow and flicked her long hair over her shoulders as she rolled the cataleptic intruder onto their back and reached to yank up the ski mask.

An arm wrapping tightly around Max's neck and pulling her in a vicious stranglehold interrupted the task, however. Max didn't struggle against the rushing pressure on her windpipe. Instead she planted her feet firmly on the wall opposite her and shoved off, sending both her and her attacker off balance and onto the ground.

Alec, meanwhile, had just sent the intruder who had stealthily crept through the guestroom room into blissful unconscious with a sharp rap of his elbow and was scowling at the man while fingering his cheekbone.

_That's gonna leave a bruise, you stupid jerk-off_. Alec glanced up sudden at the sound of scuffling on the roof above his room. He turned to head for the stairs before pausing at a groan from the man on the floor. Alec span around and delivered him a smarting kick to the head, returning his captive to la-la land once more before turning and making a dash for the stairs.

Alec passed his mate's trail – two unconscious bodies handcuffed to each-other – but saw no other sign of Max as he moved silently up the staircase and reached the landing just in time to watch Brac take down another of the intruders.

The man had evidently been gripping Brac in a headlock judging by the position of their feet and the hunch of their bodies, but Brac must have twisted free using a trick Max had slipped him and Alec just caught the tail-end view of his son grabbing a flying wrist and twisting it clear around. Brac took a punch to the face from his opponent but it only served to piss him off as he swung a full-on fist up the underside of the man's elbow and snapped his attacker's arm with the sheer force of his transgenic strength – causing Alec to wince (that really _hadn't_ been necessary) before Brac swept out a leg and knocked the man's ankles in.

Brac's opponent hit the floor with a thud and had no time to react before Brac grabbed the back of his ski mask and slammed his face into the floor repeatedly. Two counts later, Alec was standing beside Brac as the pair stood over the unconscious brigand and then checked each-other for injuries with a quick glance.

"Good job, bud - you okay?" Alec whispered, tilting up Brac's chin to get a better look at the rapid bruising underneath his right eye. "Can you see alright?"

"Yes, sir, I'm fine." Brac nodded as his eyes shot daggers at the man crumpled at his feet.

"Yeah, well where's that blood from?" Alec demanded matter-of-factly as he reached down and hiked up the leg of Brac's sleep shorts and rolled his eyes at the torn set of stitches on his knife wound.

Brac scowled with a snort of frustrated air through his nose, "I _knew_ that kick upside his head was just too perfect to go unpunished. Where's Mom?"

"Dunno. You see any others?" Alec queried in under his breath as Logan's silhouette appeared in the doorway of his and Asha's bedroom, clutching a wicked-looking .45.

"No, sir, but I'm pretty sure I heard'em." Brac glowered at Logan with a look that plainly read 'where the hell were you with that gun when I was gettin' my ass handed to me right outside your freaking room?'

"'Kay well there've gotta be more, or we'd be seein' your mom around right about now." Alec glanced up at a sudden noise outside the hallway window and immediately shoved Brac behind him as he backed up against the wall.

"What's going on?" Logan whispered as he followed suit, and Alec cast him a heavy-lidded scowl which demanded just how dense his cyber-hero pal had become all of a sudden.

"Didn't let us know there were other guests invited to dinner!"

"Very funny." Logan grimaced nastily in retort as Asha poked her head through the door, her lean frame wrapped in a robe and her pale hands totting a gun of her own.

"Asha, get back!" Alec hissed at the woman, and she jumped back just in time to avoid a shower of glass as two figures tumbled through the window and rolled onto the carpet.

Alec, Logan and Brac rushed forward only to watch as a wave of silky brown hair flipped back to reveal a disheveled Max. She jumped to her feet and rested her hands on her knees, swallowing hard and sighing in relief as she realized the shadowy figures surrounding her were her mate, son and friend.

"He's out, it's okay." Max reassured Logan, who was aiming his gun straight and truly at the motionless man covered in glass fragments on the ground.

"Are you?" Logan queried as he took Max's arm and helped her straighten up. She winced, and it didn't go unnoticed.

"I'm fine. Think we got'em all?" Max ran slender fingers through her tangled hair and frowned as she brushed out several shards of glass and twigs.

"I'm counting five. One of us should case the house in case there's still a lurker, though." Alec ruffled Brac's hair briefly as he moved to stand beside Max and held her at arm's length. "Okay, Maxie, how many ribs'd ya break?"

"Buzz off, Alec." Max shoved his hands off her shoulders impatiently as she moved forward to get a better look at the fresh blood on Brac's shorts, "That better not be _your_ blood, Brac!"

"So what if it is?" He responded with a squint in hostility as he held out a hand to fend his mother off, "Look at your freaking self, Mom!"

Nyx and Xina, who had been carried to bed by Alec before he and Max had called it a night, appeared at the threshold of a bedroom door. Xina was still wrapped in her blanket and was blinking back sleep as she eyed the broken glass and unconscious bodies on the hallway floor with wide, disoriented eyes.

"Can somebody please tell us what the hell is going on?" Nyx had pulled on her boots and was brandishing a large, baby-pink baseball bat as her eyes darted around, casing the hall for any signs of danger before she stepped out to join the others.

"Think that's somethin' we'd all like to know!" Logan responded as he watched Alec relieve the intruders of their weapons and appropriate a pair of handcuffs to demobilize the men.

"Yeah well let's start with the first question," Alec's wry grin and the narrowing of his eyes denoted he was intensely pissed off as he rolled a body onto its stomach and proceeded to cuff a wrist and an ankle together, "Know anyone who works for the CATL?"

"I think that's more of a question _I'd_ be asking _you_!" Logan snapped as the man who Brac had taken down began to moan and sit up.

"How's that _our_ issue?" Brac hissed and then noticed the man pulling off his bloodied ski mask. Brac's eyes widened in recognition and then narrowed sharply with rage. He lunged forward to attack the man only to have Max throw herself in his path and shove him back several feet.

"Don't you even think about it!" She glared at her son.

"He's CATL! I saw him at the funeral, piece o' activist shit!" Brac was bordering on irate as he glared fiercely at the fallen man who was wheezing out shuddery breaths through a broken nose and clutching his arm.

"You broke my arm, you fucking trannie brat!" The man yelled as he gripped the unnaturally-angled joint of his elbow and glowered up at Brac.

"You call me that one more freaking time, I'll break the other one _and_ your face to boot!" Brac hissed as he stepped forward and pressed up against the arm Max had extended to keep her livid son at bay.

"Yeah well after the moves I just got pulled on me, I wouldn't expect a trannie to fight clean!"

"I wasn't the one who went for the crotch, bitch!"

"No, you were the one who slam-kicked me upside the head! By the way, your leg still bleeding?"

"Not as badly as your nose!"

"Alright, knock it off, you two. _Brac_!" Max gripped her tall teenager's collar and pushed him back with some difficulty as Brac lunged forward once more.

"I should kick his fucking ass!" Brac yelled in protest as he spread one arm and flailed the other hand in the direction of the downed intruder.

"Think you sorta already did." Alec didn't look up from where he was focusing the glare of his brilliant green eyes on the incapacitated man, "Just chill for now, alright, bud? We're gonna need to ask the guy some questions and the _thumbscrews_," The X5 squinted acidly at the man, who rolled his eyes, "ain't gonna work if he's out cold!"

"That's right!" The CATL activist hissed as he rubbed a palm over the large, destabilizing bruise that was beginning to form on the left side of his temple, "Listen to Daddy, Brac McDowell!"

Brac took a step forward, bumping into Max's palm with his chest and glowering mordantly as the man continued with a triumphant sneer on his face.

"Else he might thrash that ass o' yours for a second time tonight!" The man finished with a bloody grin which widened at the flare of Brac's eyes as the kid looked up at Alec in disbelief.

"Oh yeah!" The man continued, driving the dagger home and relishing the heavy awkwardness which had suddenly fallen over each of his captors, "Stake-outs are supposed to be boring, but you know, watching the mutant brat who crashed my brother's funeral get a good old-fashioned _spanking_ was really somethin' el…"

The CATL zealot got no further. Alec's powerful fist slammed across his face with such force that one blow sent the grown man promptly back into dream land.

Alec glared down in vicious disgust and flexed his hand, taking a deep, dangerous inhale before abandoning attempts at calming himself, lashing out with another kick to the man's ribcage and causing the deadweight body to roll a good few feet.

Max opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it. Alec utterly abhorred it when _anyone_ (himself included) humiliated their children – in public or in private, it made no difference. Anybody who painted the angry, pained expression that was now darkening Brac's features on his and Nyxie's faces was guaranteed to be wearing one of their own unless they carried a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card that was valid with the head of the McDowell house.

A heavy blanket of awkward silence covered the hallway for a moment as Logan and Asha exchanged quick glances and the latter reached out to plant a reassuring hand on Brac's shoulder. The transgenic shrugged it off stormily and tore from the hallway, slamming Cade's bedroom door shut with a resounding slam.

Max bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows up with worry as her mate jabbed a fist into his hip and rubbed his face with his other hand. Alec turned away from his friends as he ran his fingers through his hair and then cursed under his breath.

"Uh…I'm gonna go call Matt and get some guys down here to clean out the house." Logan patted Max's shoulder after hesitating for a moment, and she squeezed his fingers gratefully while keeping her eyes glued to Alec, who was leaning his hand on the wall and pressing his forehead against it with tightly closed eyes and a tightly closed jaw.

Nyx had her hands pressed together and tapping softly against her mouth as Xina wrapped an arm around the young girl's slender waist and glanced at her for some indication of what to do. Asha stepped in to salvage the situation with a quick throat-clearing as she nodded at the girls.

"Who wants some hot chocolate?"

"Alec and I can hold the fort," Max said softly, casting Asha a quiet look of thanks and crinkling up her nose as the woman offered her a gun. "Without needin' those. Thanks though, Ash."

"S'fine." Asha pulled in her lips as she eyed Alec's back with a worried tilt of her head before planting a kiss on Max's cheek and gaining a small smile from her friend in response. "Right, c'mon, girlies. To the kitchen we go, and Xina, put some shoes on, would you? There's glass all over the place."

"I'll be down in five." Xina pulled the blanket higher up her shoulders and cast a telltale glance of concern in the direction of Cade's silent door. "Or maybe ten. Just uh get it started…"

"Leave'im alone, Xina." Alec mumbled loud enough for the girl to hear and wonder how the X5 had known of her intentions when his eyes were still closed and his back was still turned.

"I just wanna…"

"I said leave'im!" Alec repeated as he cast Xina a stern look over his shoulder.

Xina bristled and scowled viciously at Alec as she made for Cade's bedroom with a determined snort, "Go to hell, Alec, you're _not_ my dad!"

"No but I _am_ Brac's, and if you give a _shit_ about my son, you will leave him to himself right now, you understand me?" Alec didn't move from his position but the gleam in his eye was as much of a plea as a danger sign.

""I know you wanna help him, kiddo," Max backed up her mate with a raise of her eyebrows, "but trust me - we know our son better then you do."

Xina's eyes narrowed and she pouted her lips challenging, "Not in every way!"

Max frowned in alarm as Alec turned fully around, eyes wide and eyebrows narrowed in outrage at what had seemed to his mate to be a petulant yet harmless jab. She decided to nip the potential confrontation in the bud.

"Alec, come on and help me lace these creepos up!" Max beckoned with a finger for her boy as she dropped to her knees beside the unconscious CATL captives and began to unloop their boot laces. "Xina, go downstairs and help your mom unless you wanna stay and watch the show!"

The tone in Max's voice was careless but left no room for argument. Xina let out an exaggerated sigh but the sound of her blanket dragging across the carpet and down the stairs reached Max's ears and brought on a tidal wave of relief. All she knew was that a response of that sort was by no means Alec's usual course of comeback…which meant that something was seriously wrong.

Alec's tense silence and deep, steady breathing as he crouched beside his mate and made short work of a freeing a shoelace had Max pressing her lips tightly together. She continued to bind her prisoner's wrists together and kept her eyes glued to the task at hand, but after a moment of icy silence, Max Guevara decided that enough was enough.

"What's got you all revved up?" She queried in a sarcastically casual tone which put Alec's deep-throated growl of a response into even starker light.

"How bout you lay off with the questions, huh Max?" He was staring at her stonily, matter-of-factly as his hands flew, "I mean, you handed me all that crap 'bout what Brac did and then left me to do the dirty work! So excuse me if I'm not exactly in the mood for another heart-to-heart just freaking yet!"

"Well I hate to break it to you, Alec," Max scowled up at him caustically as she paused in her work, "But this isn't _about_ _you_, it's about _Brac_, and the last thing he's gonna need is your freaking _guilt trips_ addin' to the wall between the two o' you!"

"Yeah well I'm _done_ givin' Brac 'what he needs', Max, alright?" Alec lowered his voice as Max raised an eyebrow in the direction of the bedroom door, "From now on it's _your_ call…"

"Hate to 'fess it, Alec, but in case you haven't noticed, I can't handle our boy anymore. So you're gonna have to wait on handin' in your resignation till he's eighteen at least!" Max retorted with a stony raise of her eyebrows as she stared Alec down and he rolled his eyes at her. "Roll your eyes at me like that again and I'll smack that bitch head o' yours, Pretty-boy!"

Alec looked away from Max and smirked dryly, causing her to fume and throw down the ankles she had just tied together.

"You know what? Fine!" Max snarled as she stood up and squared her shoulders, jutting out her chin in a 'come and get it' manner, "You wanna be a selfish lil' bastard about this, Alec, I'm gonna smack that emo grin right off your face!" She balled her fists up to her chest and raised an eyebrow challengingly at her mate, voice soft and cocky. "So come on and take your medicine like a good little boy!"

What finally set Max off was the broadening of Alec's devil-may-care grin as he shook his head at her challenge.

"Ah Maxie…always eager to resort to violence." Alec sniffed and eyed his mate with the same caustic smirk, "You know I always wondered whether ya did that just cuz verbal sparrin' wasn't your thing…"

Max's roundhouse kick to his six-pack was somewhat expected by Alec and the X5's face darkened with annoyance and not surprise as he stumbled back against the wall.

Max's face was set in stone as she bounced slightly on her feet and raised an eyebrow at Alec, "I mean, come on, Alec, why beat yourself up when someone else could do for you, right?"

"Oh is _that_ your point?" Alec was snarling but the grin was still present, "Funny – thought it was more along the lines o' your little 'I can't handle this' spiel!"

Max's face remained hard but her eyes flashed with hurt as her mate continued.

"I mean come on _yourself_, Max – you're pitchin' a fit cuz I'm throwin' in the towel…"

"No I'm not and no _you're_ not, Alec!"

"Givin' me orders here, Maxie?" Alec snorted with a sarcastic expression that was minus his usual grin.

"No, I would never be so presumptuous, _Sir_!"

"Well that's freaking good to know, _Bitch_!"

"Alright, _enough_ for Christ's sake!" The fierce, hissing whisper managed to thunder loud enough to quell the low, acrid rumble of Max and Alec's war.

Brac was storming out of his room with a crackling countenance that shot lightening through the air as he stabbed a finger viciously at his parents, "Just _stop_! Quit dicking around! I've had _enough_ of all this fighting!" Brac's eyes were ablaze with anger…and tears – the latter emotion sent a shockwave of despair crashing down on his parents.

"I second that!" Nyx had suddenly appeared at the top of the stairs with eyes shooting daggers and lips pouted menacingly, "These squabbles are doin' my head in and I'm so damn sick, I'm gonna _retch_ if it keeps up!"

"I mean, _fuck_!" Brac kicked at a hallway pot plant and sent it cracking over with a thud, lost in his own world of anger and hurt and frustration and oblivious to everything else. Alec and Max didn't wince – didn't even move. "Maybe we should just pull the Lexus up outside o' the nearest Conclave hang-out and wave a white flag! Or you know we could always just shoot ourselves in the heads, cuz I mean that's what we've been doin', right, with all this crap – doing these people's work for'em!"

Neither Alec nor Max could find it in themselves to respond as their son's eyes glistened with angry tears. For Max, it had been two full years since she had seen Brac even _close_ to tears, and the sight of it broke her heart.

It didn't fail to have precisely the same effect on Alec – regardless of the fact he'd witnessed Brac crying only hours earlier. These were a whole different sort of tears – evidence of a much deeper and more menacing pain.

"Just…_shit_." Brac whispered as he pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffed in an attempt to fend his crying. He tore his head up to eye his parents desperately for a long, agonizing moment before he shook it and turned to leave.

"You know what, never fucking mind…"

"Brac," Alec's soft, shaky call had the boy's retreating back pause momentarily, "Nyxie, come on."

"You guys are right." Max whispered as a lone tear rolled down her cheek and she shuffled forward a cautious few steps, eyes glued to Brac. "Brac, come on, we're sorry. You were right…"

Brac's hand left his forehead and curled into a fist which pressed against his lips, and Alec's eyes shut tightly as his son's shoulders shuddered with a single, deep-throated sob.

Only one. And then Max's arms were wrapping tightly around Brac's waist and she was resting her face against his shoulder blades and enveloping her boy in a gentle, pleading hug. Brac stood stock-still for a moment before he stiffened in Max's grip.

"Yeah whatever." Brac pulled away from Max's arms and disappeared into Cade's room once more, clicking the door quietly shut behind him.

Max sighed heavily as she closed her eyes and turned away. Nyx was holding Alec in a tight embrace from which it seemed the X5 was deriving a great deal more comfort then his daughter as he pressed his lips against Nyx's silky hair and remained still.

The distressing moment didn't last long. Suddenly there were sirens and flashing lights and insistent doorbell chimes. The hallway was invaded by a contingent of officers headed up by Matt Sung, and Asha's tired but pleasant voice echoed softly through the corridors offering coffee and doughnuts.

Alec, Max and Nyx were left to themselves for a grand total of twenty seconds before Logan appeared at the foot of the stairs and demanded the X5's immediate presence amongst the officers. Max headed down instantly while Alec coaxed Nyx back into bed and tucked her in with a quick kiss and a farcical order to not worry about a single thing.

By the time Alec reached the kitchen, the unconscious intruders had been handcuffed and loaded into vehicles which had apparently already begun their solemn trek to a holding facility (a concept which was slightly disappointing to 494, as Alec had been looking forward to planting one last subtle kick into Brac's oppressor while Max's watchful eyes were averted).

"You said one of the men identified himself?" Sung was inquiring of Max as he sipped his coffee and Max collected several small bags of frozen vegetables which Alec didn't like the look of at all…he was particularly wary of the peas.

"Yeah, said he was a relative o' Horn's – brother or something, I dunno. Alec!" Max raised her eyebrows at her mate, who had already begun to retreat out of the kitchen.

"Mmm, what's up, Maxie?" Alec returned the eyebrow-raise innocently, and Max scowled as she held up the bag of peas.

"This is goin' on your cheekbone." She tossed it at Alec, and he actually clasped his hands together to prevent his Manticore reflexes from making an otherwise-instinctive grab for the thing. "_Alec_!"

"Whoops." He grinned at the white package at his feet, but the smirk was replaced by a frown as his mate held up another of its kind.

"It's that or the carrots, Alec – take your pick!"

"Oh now Maxie, what about you, huh?" Alec resorted to unabashed whining as he bent down and scooped up the frozen bag of peas, "I mean, you gotta have at least two broken ribs from the look o' that wince you pulled earlier!"

"Yeah well an icepack ain't gonna do much for those, is it, Smart-ass?" Max responded tartly and then growled as she caught sight of the clandestine smirks on both Sung and Asha's faces. "So we have a definite ID on at least one of our attackers, Sungie-boy – you want me to testify, cuz I got no issues on it?"

"Oh uh yeah, Max. That would be great." Matt cleared his throat shortly after handing Alec one last 'you are so pussy-whipped' grin and receiving the desired reaction of an acerbic smile and flashing middle finger in response while Max's back was turned.

"Asha, I know you and Logan are always careful with this sorta thing, but all the same," Sung turned to the frail blonde with a cautious, empathetic expression, "it's my job to ask; have you been keeping to the security measures we agreed upon?"

Max felt her eyes tighten and she threw a subtle glance in the direction of her mate just in time to catch Alec tilting up his chin and eyeing Sung and Asha from under half-closed lids. It was a question to which the X5 couple had been attempting to wring an answer out of their Ordinary friends since the attack – with fruitless results.

Asha's eyes lowered and she answered Sung in soft, low tones which of course failed to escape the transgenics' ears. Max blew out a breath and Alec glared at the floor. Both were disappointed in their friends but equally as guilt-ridden about the fact that the attack had been launched by the CATL – people who had no official problem with the Cale household…which meant it had been Max and Alec's bad this time round.

As the kitchen clock chimed six AM, Max, Alec, Logan and Asha sat around the counter nursing beers and private inner wounds…and in the case of the transgenics, a smatter of bruises and internal discrepancies.

"It's officially Thanksgiving." Asha said in a small voice as she ran long, thin fingers through a mop of messy hair and took another swig of her Budweiser.

"And people wonder why I don't like celebratin' this particular holiday." Alec was snickering as he peered into his empty beer bottle and accepted the fresh one Logan was nudging his way.

"I'm so sorry, you guys." Max finally spat out the apology that had been brewing inside of her for the past four hours. The Cale's, however, met the manouvere with one of their one.

"Got nothin' to be sorry for, Max!" Logan stated matter-of-factly as he rubbed at the dark circles under his eyes, "There was no way you and Alec coulda known the CATL would pull such a stunt, and anyway if I hadn't had the system offline for an upgrade then they wouldn't've gotten past the front gate."

"Ah well we could all sit here for a happy lil' blame fest," Alex stretched with a yawn and placed one arm across the back of Asha's barstool, "Or we could finish the dinner and get this goddamn holiday over with! Whaddya say?"

"You are _not_ making the stuffing!" Was Logan's curt response as he picked up several empty beer bottles and stood up from his stool, "Last time you lathered it in oregano and it made the meat taste like fish!"

Alec gasped in disbelief and jumped to his feet at the culinary glove Logan had just thrown at the X5's feet, "That was after _you_ snuck in and decided it needed 'a lil' somethin' more' which just happened to be _vanilla_!"

"It's an old family recipe which has never served me wrong!" Logan snapped as he dumped the bottles in a recycling bin and raised an eyebrow at Alec.

"It's never served you _right_ which is why you don't know what you're missin', ol' buddy!" Alec grinned sardonically, and Asha and Max exchanged bored expressions.

"It begins." Max echoed the sentiment her friend had uttered the evening before.

"It _continues_." Asha corrected her with a smirk as she slid off her barstool, "Mind givin' me a hand with the pumpkins, Max?"

Max grinned, "What're my orders?"

"Cade, take it off _right now_!" Nyx bellowed as the eight year-old boy shoved a Native American feathered headpiece onto the girl's carefully-crimped hair.

"Oh come on, Nyxie, it looks great!" Cade protested with a wide smile as he adjusted his own chieftain's headpiece and resumed his seat beside the transgenic girl.

"Yeah well it ain't gonna look so great after I've tarred and feathered it, is it now?" Nyx barked as she pulled the large monstrosity off her head and placed it on the floor beside her chair.

"Nyxie, you are such a kill-joy!" Alec laughed as he aided Logan in dishing out the turkey, "After all your whinin' about Thanksgiving. Gimme the freaking hat and _I'll_ wear the thing!"

"You will _not_!" Max stated with a smile as she flicked the settings wheel on her digital camera with one hand and accepted the plate Logan was holding out with the other, "Not unless you want it in the front page of the family journal for the next twenty years!"

Alec stuck his tongue out at his mate in response, but any verbal comeback the cocky X5 was about to make met a pre-emptive end as Asha and Brac entered the dining room with broad grins and armfuls of something which they were conveniently hiding behind their backs.

"Okay, okay, everyone sit down and shut up!" Asha yelled over the din, and Logan's face went pale as Cade bounced eagerly in his seat and Nyx groaned exaggeratedly.

"Do we have to do this _every_ year, babe?" Logan's whine bore a sudden resemblance to Alec's as Asha gleefully nodded.

"Whoa, what am I missin' here?" Alec queried as Max, who had caught sight of the hidden items, turned a shade of red and clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent laughter from spilling.

Suddenly Brac and Asha were producing armfuls of pilgrim hats and strap-on beards made of thick yarn. Alec's eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open.

"Okay," The X5 waved his carving knife, "no freaking way, you two!"

"Oh come on, Alec!" Asha cooed with a wicked grin as she handed the items to their respective victims, "Where's your holiday spirit anyway?"

"Kinda left it where I found it – figured it was safer there!" Alec retorted and then growled menacingly as Brac advanced on him bearing a hat and fake beard.

"Oh come on, after all your big talk about wearin' the Indian hat!" Nyx piped up with a vicious giggle as she attempted to untangle a knot in her beard.

Alec mimicked his daughter's words in a squeaky mutter and then glowered at Brac as his son placed a hat and beard on the table in front of Alec with a determined raise of his eyebrows.

"Don't make me use this!" Alec held up the carving knife with a desperate smirk, and Brac rolled his eyes.

"Just put it on for five minutes and make Asha's camera happy." Brac was wearing a wide smile which had Alec worried all of a sudden – the plastic one that always meant everything was in fact _not_ alright. "C'mon Dad, take one for the team!"

Alec's grin remained pasted on his face but his eyes narrowed in concern as he accepted the dreaded items from his boy without another word. Brac caught the silent query and threw it back with an over-zealous 'whoop' of triumph as he stalked around to locate an empty chair.

Max was in the process of threatening to kick Asha's ass if the woman didn't stop trying to shove the Pilgrim's hat onto her head when she heard a sharp hissing to her left and twisted to eye Brac with a raise of her eyebrow.

Max opened her mouth to ask 'you alright' but caught herself just in time. Brac had sat down and was shifting uncomfortably in the chair, lips pressed together in a tight expression which meant he was in pain but would be damned if he let anybody know it. Max sighed through her nose and then refocused her attention to the Thanksgiving meal.

It was a joyous occasion – well, as joyous as it could have been considering the circumstances. The two families had been through hell and back over the past years, each in their own way attempting to eke out normal lives and protect the ones they loved from the wide selection of evils lurking in the shadows. It had been and always would be a fight for the McDowell and Cale clans. The extraordinary thing – and a quality which both found admirable in the other – was the fact that they seldom complained about their lot, neither did they allow the fact that their happiness, not to mention existence, was under constant threat by a great variety of sources.

The second generation of McDowell's and Cale's was the binding tie, the culmination of the rested hopes and dreams of their hard-line, self-sacrificing (and more then a little smart-ass) parents.

Max's brooding was suddenly shattered and she jumped slightly as Brac, who had been shuffling around in discomfort the entire meal, finally threw down his silverware a little harder then he'd intended and excused himself.

Max's lips twisted into a confused scrunch and she glanced over at Alec, who had been paying only a dutiful amount of attention to his food and subtly observing Brac's evident pain with growing guilt darkening his handsome features. The X5 didn't display a noticeable reaction to his boy's frustrated exit, but Max knew her mate well enough to be completely unsurprised when, exactly ten minutes later, Alec stood up, stretched and then announced casually about a very specific phone call he had to make.

"Unless you're calling to order a sizeable case o' Martini," Logan called out as he discreetly removed his fake beard after stealing a glance at a distracted Asha, "you can park that transgenic rear-end o' yours back on your seat and wait for the dessert! Ash and I spent two hours whipping it up and…"

"And if you don't save me and Brac a plate, I'm gonna 'park my transgenic ass' on top of you after I've rolled ya into a ball and tied you up with your shoelaces!" Alec retorted with a beaming grin and a wave of his finger as he retreated from the dining room.

"I believe my wording was 'rear-end'!" Logan's mock-sour call echoing after Alec caused the smirk to stay for a brief moment before it disappeared entirely as he paused outside of the ajar door of Cade's bedroom and fumbled with his cell phone.

Alec held the phone to his ear and pursed his lips with narrowed green eyes as he tapped his foot uncomfortably and waited for a connection. A grating beep at the other end of the line informed Alec that the number he had dialed was engaged and a mechanical female cooed at him to 'please try again later'.

Alec frowned in disappointment as he hung up his phone and then paused, straightening to his full height like a deer sensing danger as he caught wind of a muffled man's voice speaking through the half-open door to the bedroom in which Brac resided. Alec pocketed his phone and inched his way cautiously to peer through the crack in the door and ascertain the origin of the low, steady rumbling voice which seemed oddly familiar.

A careful squint into the bedroom afforded Alec a view of Brac standing by the window, back turned to the door and cell phone pressed to his ear. Only Alec's transgenic hearing allowed the X5 to pick up snatches of the voice speaking on the other end of the line.

"…_if you're sleeping, dead or high…gonna kick your ass, you understand…at least call and let us know…okay. Right well…call… get this…love you, kid_."

The telltale bleep of Brac's phone shortly after the final word informed Alec that his son had indeed been listening to the message that Alec had left on Brac's phone after he had gone AWOL at the dining facility.

_Too little, too late._ Alec cringed and rolled his eyes as Brac rubbed his face and leant his forehead against the window pane, still clutching the cell phone. Alec had a sinking feeling in his gut that somehow, someway, Brac had not tuned in to the message until that precise moment.

Maybe it had been the reaction the kid had been seeking that would've proven Alec 'gave a shit'. Maybe it would've quelled Brac's angry assumption- an assumption that had evidently been based on Alec's natural devil-may-care billboard behind which the X5 hid from prying eyes.

Maybe if Brac had heard the message sooner, he wouldn't have screwed Xina or sniffed cocaine in the Steakhouse bathrooms…subsequently, maybe Alec wouldn't have had to dish out a punishment they'd both still be feeling - in their separate ways- for a good while yet.

Maybe…

Alec lifted a couple of knuckles and was about to rap them lightly against the door when something grabbed his heart and squeezed it in its grasp. He felt his mouth drop open ever so slightly and restrained a sharp inhale of confusion and fear and worry all at once.

Since Alec had last looked, Brac seemed to have reached behind him and dug something out of the backpack resting on the bed to his right. Alec narrowed his eyes and zoomed his vision in to get a better focus on the object his son seemed to be holding with intrigue and an uncharacteristic aura of reverence.

It was a small, porcelain figurine that was clutched between Brac's fingers – a woman clothed in blue and white robes with a circle of light cresting her hair and a tiny infant at her feet.

Alec had always made it a point to avoid knowing too much about his deceased twin – Max had never been too forthcoming with the subject and Alec was content to let well enough alone provided his mate lost no sleep over the past and all its woes. But one fact Alec did remember strongly from the tales and snippets of information which had come his way about Ben over the years was X5- 493's unshakeable idolizing of the Virgin Mary…or the Blue Lady, as the young man had dubbed her.

Alec forced himself back into the calm composure that so brilliantly matched the casual expression on his striking face as he sniffed softly, making his otherwise oblivious son aware of his presence. Brac and Nyx were sharp and could pick up on the subtle nuance of almost any intruder – except for Alec and Max. The two 'damned, pestilential X5s' (as they had once been described by Otis Garre, a leading Manticore reject who was out to build an empire of his own) had always managed to sneak their way through any problem that didn't require their heads or fists.

Brac pocketed the figurine with the feline stealth he had been taught and then glared at his feet, "If you're just gonna stand there, you might as well come in, Dad!"

"You sure?" Alec threw out casually, fully expecting the roll of Brac's eyes in response – but not the grit-teethed edge to his voice.

"Just come in or stay out, whichever suits you. But whatever you do, for god's sake, would you _please_ just shut the door?"

Alec narrowed his eyes in a very convincing show of confusion as he strolled through the doorway and swung it shut with his foot, tucking his hands into his shirt pocket, "Food's gettin' cold."

"That so?" Brac replied stonily as he continued to observe the rain-clouds forming across the sky.

Alec raised an eyebrow and then shrugged with an indifferent sigh as he turned towards the settee residing beside a long set of bookshelves and framed in a window ledge, "You mind if I…?"

Brac threw a brief glance over his shoulder and scowled before returning his gaze to the window once more, "Go right ahead, sir. S'not like I can sit there anyway, so it might as well do _one_ o' us some good!"

Alec's face went deadpan at the double-barreled bite to Brac's statement – the reference made to the pain the kid was experiencing, courtesy of X5-494, and the dropping of the title 'Sir'…something which had definitely been going on for long enough. He allowed himself a moment of all-out frustration as he waved his fists in the air beside his head and growled silently at Brac's back. After a couple seconds of this amusing outlet, Alec's countenance returned to its deadpan state as Brac looked at him from the corner of his eye.

"Ooh, _touché_, Brac McDowell!" Alec responded apathetically as he pitched himself onto on the seat and planted one foot up on its cushioned surface, "Just uh before you go on with the whining, I gotta ask exactly _why_ your ass is bitchin' like a social bee who just lost the Prom Queen competition!"

"That's real mature o' you, Dad." Brac replied in a curt tone that dripped with icy stalactites.

Alec raised his eyebrows and jutted out his bottom lip with a tilt of his head, "Not exactly the answer I was lookin' for, but it's still a darn sight closer to bein' what you really feel then all this 'yes sir, no sir' crap!"

"Don't like the title? Don't wear the uniform." Brac responded acidly as his phone chimed with the grainy chorus to Green Day's 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams'. "'Xcuse me a sec." He thumbed on the answer button and held it to his ear. Alec rolled his eyes and turned his palms up in a mock-offended air from his position on the settee as Brac began to speak with a young female acquaintance – at least, that was Alec's best guess judging by the suave tone of voice and confident stance his adolescent son had suddenly taken on. The hand which rested at the nape of his neck and the absent swing of his leg worked together to create an exact replica of Alec's 'phone-sex-pose' (as Max had once dubbed it).

_He's gonna be __so__ much trouble. Oh wait…shit…he already is_.

The bedroom door bursting open and Nyx's irritated frame posing in the doorway recaptured Alec's attention. His daughter was scrunching her delicately made-up face (courtesy of Asha) into a becoming scowl of displeasure that was a hundred percent Max.

"You guys, come on! They're waitin' for you and it's getting _really_ awkward in there with Cade tryin' to pull the moves on me and Uncle Logan and Mom flirting like nobody's business! It's _disgusting_!" Nyx added the last part with an even greater measure of disgust and raised her eyebrows at her father.

Alec resisted the urge to laugh at the idea of Logan and Max's sugary ex-sweetheart fooling which had long ceased to bother him at all – in fact, he found it quite amusing. Nyx wasn't wholly aware of that, however, and the manipulative girl had evidently thrown it out in an attempt to shift Alec's butt back into the dining room.

Realizing Nyx was still waiting for a reaction, Alec smiled inwardly and pasted on a token frown of disapproval.

"Wait, did you say Cade's hittin' on you, Nyxie? Cuz that's just inexcusable, come on!" He jumped to his feet dramatically and pounded a fist into his palm as Nyx's face became a picture of confusion. "Gonna kick that eight-year old ass o' his. Brac, you wanna hold him and I'll slug?"

"Quit kiddin' around, Dad!" Nyx slapped Alec's arm, seeming more then just a little sour at Alec's utter squelching of her potentially dramatic firework. "Mom's gonna have a hernia in a minute! She's been doin' that annoying smile and tapping thing she does when she's pretending not to be pissed off 'bout somethin'!"

"Oh crap, not the _tapping thing_ again!" Alec's eyes widened and he clutched his heart with a stagger, causing Nyx to smother a small grin into a twisted frown.

"Dad what is wrong with you?" She whined and stamped her foot in displeasure as Alec faked a full-on heart attack. The X5's head shot up suddenly wearing a ridiculously foolish expression.

"What's the matter wi' _me_? What's the matter wi' y_ou_, ba_by_?"

"Oh god," Nyx closed her eyes and shook her hands in disgust, "Now you're doin' your whole 'Grease' impersonation thing! You know what? I'm going back to the dining room!" She cast her oblivious brother a scowl from across the room, "Yeah thanks for the back-up, Brac!"

Brac remained facing the window and held out a finger behind him which ordered his sister in no uncertain terms to shut up. "Sorry, Casey…just the baby makin' noise." He flailed his hand at Nyx in a 'bug off' manner as he stalked to the en-suite bathroom and disappeared behind the closing door, "What were we sayin' again?"

Alec felt Nyx's sharp fingernail jab him the side and suddenly realized he had been watching Brac's actions with a small, wistful smirk. Alec quickly cleared his throat and then narrowed his eyebrows sternly at the bathroom door, shaking his head in severe disapproval, "These young people. I just…you know, I dunno, Nyxie."

"Oh put a cork in it." Nyx snapped with a flushing face, evidently not finding any humor in Alec's antics as she threw up her hands in frustration and stomped back down the hall to the staircase, "I'm heading back to the dining room!"

"Oh but Nyxie, we were havin' so much fun!" Alec crooned in a toddler voice as he leant against the doorway with a broad smirk pasted on his lips. He and Brac had a nasty habit of winding up the easily-excitable females of the McDowell clan. It was horrible, they knew, but it was highly enjoyable…and besides, they were just so damn good at it.

"And I'm drinking the rest o' this, to boot!" Nyx's ranting threat caused Alec to glance up in alarm as his daughter snatched up Alec's half-drunk beer which she had apparently been bringing up to him from the landing rail. Nyx waved it at Alec with a haughty raise of her eyebrows which she shared with Max and spelled danger for anyone who dared to challenge the authenticity of whatever threat either girl had just thrown out.

Alec was about to make a smart-ass remark in retort when he noticed the expression and adapted his grin from cocky to assertive with a shifting of his eyes, "Do it and you're gonna spend the rest o' the evening holed up in the guest room markin' off homework, girlie girl!"

"Oh really? Damn, because watchin' Mom bat her eyes at Uncle Logan and gettin' Cade's hands up my skirt is just _too_ much fun to be missing out on…"

"Nyxie! Alec! Brac!" Asha and Xina were cooing at the foot of stairs, "Come down and eat dessert before we bring it all up there and pelt you with it!"

Nyx's eyes flashed with excitement and she charged down the stairs, only to appear a moment later and waved the beer bottle with a sheepish smile.

"Forgot." Nyx placed it on the rail before she raced back down the staircase once more, squealing in protest as Xina called out "Come on, it's gonna melt!"

Alec snorted quietly for a minute, a small smile on his face before he shook his head and laughed out loud at Nyx's childish ability to bounce back so very quickly.

_God when did Brac outgrow that stuff? Kids are supposed to be famous for that kinda thing. _Alec dug his hands into his pockets and scuffed his feet across the carpet back into Cade's bedroom, _Oh yeah, now I remember. "Don't call me 'kid'"_…

"Alec!" Max's hesitant voice sounding behind him caused Alec to jump and spin around, holding up his fists and bouncing on his feet.

"Yeah you wanna piece o' this, huh, come on, come on!" He threw a few mock jabs her way and then burst out laughing at the utterly bewildered look on Max's face.

"Oh my god…okay who are you and what the hell have you done with my Smart-Alec pain in the ass of a mate?" Max eyed her boy up and down with a squint of alarm, "You're not drunk, are ya?"

"Uh…" Alec's eyes widened and shifted from side to side in bemused thought for a moment, "Maxie, what in all our history together makes you think eight beers and two and a half glasses o' Merlot would have me actin' this…"

"Insane?" Max suggested with a sharp raise of her eyebrows as she crossed her arms and rubbed at her biceps in response to the chilly draft piping through the net curtains, "High-strung? Dramatic?"

"Exuberant." Alec corrected with a wide smile that made Max's brow drop and tilt up slightly.

"Everything okay with you and Brac?" She whispered in a barely-audible voice, then followed the morose glance Alec threw at the bathroom door with a questioning one of her own.

Alec sighed and shook his head ever-so-slightly, pursing his lips as his gaze stayed fixed to the mahogany, "I got no way of knowin' anymore, Maxie." He responded in like tone with a wistful glimmer in his lucid green eyes as he focused them back on his mate and replaced the annoying grin.

"Happy Thanksgiving, baby-doll!"

Max raised an eyebrow and leant in, rising on her tiptoes and planting a luscious kiss on Alec's mouth. She fell back on her heels after a moment and flashed Alec a beautiful smile which had never failed to make his heart rate quicken, "Happy Thanksgiving yourself!"

Later that evening, after the disaster zones of the kitchen and dining room had been tidied to Asha's high standard of perfection, the clean-up crew crashed out on the sofas. Alec and Logan clutched fresh beers and exchanged muttered grumbles and muted snickers about some hugely interesting topic…(Max had caught wind of the title 'domineering den mothers' and decided to tune out and let the men be men).

Asha had pulled out a heavy-duty folder full of photos and was giggling over her seventh beer of the evening as she pointed out a picture of a ten year-old Xina and Brac flashing huge grins and holding up a massive swordfish they had caught at a fishing adventure world three years back.

"Oh my gosh, how come we don't have these? Alec!" Max called out, and her mate waved a hand at her impatiently from his position stretched across the sofa opposite them.

"Alec!" Max insisted once more, and he groaned.

"_What_, Maxie?"

"We have to get some o' these pictures off of Asha! She's got the fishing trip and some of that beach holiday we took…" Max continued, but she was fully aware she only had to drop the word 'fishing trip' to get Alec hauling his ass up from the sofa and sprawling beside her.

"Wait, lemme see!" He pried the photo album away, flipping onto the next page from Max and she raised an eyebrow in amusement as his face contorted in embarrassment.

"Asha, you are _not_ supposed to have that one! C'mon, we traded off fair and square!"

Asha was giggling like a five year old as she took a gulp of her beer and Logan beamed at her from where he had come behind the couch to get a bird's eye view of the offending picture.

"I cannot believe this!" Alec rubbed his face and actually blushed as Max cupped a hand over her mouth and laughed behind it, "Ash, I deleted that pic of you in your panties and you promised you'd get rid o' this shot – I can't believe it!"

"You had a photo of my wife in her underwear?" Logan queried with a broad grin that widened even further when Asha jumped on Alec and tackled him to the flat of his back, tickling him and causing the battle-hardy X5 to yelp in protest.

"I have photos of your _mom_ in her underwear!" Alec gasped out between laughter as he scooped up Asha's wrists and clamped them in a strong hand.

"Oh well in that case, I guess _this_ one," Logan snickered as he pulled out his wallet and held up a very incriminating snapshot of a twenty year-old Max in a towel, "is gonna be considered the lesser of three evils!"

"Give me that!" Max jumped up from the sofa, eyes wide as she attempted to snatch the picture from her tall ex, who held it out of her reach with a malevolent grin.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Logan shook a finger in her face to ward her off, "Think I'll give it to Sketchy instead! That media shark offered me two thousand bucks for it back in '25!"

"_So_ not funny!" Max hissed as she pulled a transgenic leap and caught hold of the edge of the photo to which Logan was still tightly holding, "Gimme the pic, Logan, or I'll kick your…"

"Oh, is that your phone?" Logan's wicked smile and mocking tone of disappointment earned him a solid slug to the gut. He doubled over, half wheezing, half-laughing as Max snatched the photo from him and then answered her cell phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey Max!" Mole's gravelly voice sounded austerely over the other end of the line, "You might wanna get your asses back behind TC's walls as fast as you damn well can! Just saw the headlines – the International Police Dept. released a statement 'bout a series of abductions fresh off the griddle." The nomalie actually sounded worried, "They're sayin' it was us – and by the looks o' it, they may be right!"…

To Be Continued


End file.
